Opinions and Imagination

Rand has been developing both his own opinion and his own imagination recently. Both are great to watch, but the imagination bit is a lot more fun for mom and dad. He likes building "birthday cakes" in the sand, complete with a stick for a candle, then have us pretend to blow the candle out. Uncle Thom the Great gave him some giant Lego-like toys for Christmas -- Rand likes to use those to build water towers for his train tracks and stairs for the people to walk on. Usually the water towers and the stairs look pretty much the same, but it's so fun to see how proud he is of his work.

Rand's also started having an opinion on many, many things, and I'm still working out a balance between letting him learn the consequences of his decisions, and when I should just ignore his input. Like tonight -- we were going to the drugstore, then to the park. After we got into the store after our errand, Rand said that he didn't want to go to the park and that he wanted to go home. We went through the same thing earlier in the week, and of course, when we arrived at home, he burst into tears and was so mad when I wouldn't take him to the park. So tonight, I suggested that we just drive by the park and then he could tell me if he still wanted to go home. He protested all the way to the park, but as soon as he saw the sand and the slide he wanted to get out and play. Hmmm.

It has been HOT for the last few days -- at 8pm tonight it was still 102 outside. It is supposed to cool down later in the week, but Summer is definitely here.