The Fish Egg

It sometimes amazes me when I reflect on the various tasks I am called upon to do in a typical day at the home of Missy Moo and Bubba Boo. For instance, Missy Moo found a very small bead on the floor today that the sweeper failed to retrieve after she snuck one of my elaticized bracelets out of my drawer this past weekend and decided to experiment on how far it could stretch. “Look, Mommy! It’s a fishy egg!” she excitedly shrieked and went on to explain that this MUST be Nemo’s egg as it was the only egg left after the mean fish came and took Coral and the rest of the fish away (if you can figure out the movie then you too probably have a children at home). She then proceeded to make every attempt to carry this bead that is about the size of a chocolate chip around the house and of course, lost it about every 2.5 seconds. As I was lying on the kitchen floor face-down trying to peer under the stove and reach under that impossibly tiny crack that seperates the stove from the floor to retrieve the “fishy egg”, it dawned on me that absolutely no one on this planet would ever predict what I was doing at that given moment. Upon further reflection, it occurred to me that there were many times throughout my days as a mommy that this could be true as well and I certainly suspect that other mommies have some unusual stories to tell as well. However, I must also admit that this is exactly how I want Missy Moo to think – she is creative to an extreme and can see things in everyday objects that we as adults would never see. Admit it – when was the last time you looked at a bead and said, “That is Nemo’s fish egg”? This then made me start to wonder at what point do we get evicted from this innocent fantasy land that so many children reside in thus allowing them to see things that adults simply cannot? What else do they see during the day that they don’t even vocalize or maybe they do but we are so practical and cerebral that we just think they are babbling about nonsense? I quickly caught myself and offered Missy Moo a snack ziploc bag for her fish egg, which is where it is now waiting until it is time to hatch. She is also sleeping with it as we speak and while the serious adult in me is a little worried about this the child development side of me is telling me that this is all good. She is “thinking outside the box” because for her, there simply isn’t a box. I plan to encourage this unlimited thinking for as long as she will allow and even when she doesn’t, I will push on. Though I will silently hope that she never loses this way of viewing the world, I fear the reality is that she probably will as she grows older each year. Meanwhile, I will continue to be Cheer Bear and Princess Aurora, I will take care of fish eggs and risk my life to find them, and I will be Bella Dancerella whenever I am called upon to do so. After all, it is through my child’s eyes that I am able to see the world that I learned about through life experiences and it is fun. Very fun…So fun that I might stay in this fantasy land for a while because, quite truthfully, it is a whole lot more exciting.