Window Into the Mind of a 3 Year Old: Evolution of a Ritual

Observing the development of Natalie's personality and intellect is the most fascinating endeavor I have ever undertaken.  This is my first entry into what I envision as being on ongoing series of posts (Window Into the Mind of...) that will document some highlights of Natalie's childhood and share a few smiles, laughs and, inevitably, tears along the way.  

Natalie takes great comfort in daily rituals; however, her extremely imaginative mind likes to bend and stretch them gradually over time until the end result barely resembles its humble origin.  One example of this is Ring-around-the-Rosie.

I can't even remember how it got started, but at some point many months ago Natalie wanted us to do Ring-around-the-Rosie with her right before bedtime.  It put her in a happy mood and seemed conducive to good sleep.  After a few weeks of doing Ring-around-the-Rosie the standard way Natalie began directing us in making changes to the routine.  The changes occurred something like this...

1) Ring-around-the-Rosie standard style

2) Ring-around-the-Rosie with Dotty Dolly in between me and Natalie

3) Ring-around-the-Rosie with 3 dolls, one in between each pair of humans.

4) Ring-around-the-Rosie with cell phones replacing the 3 dolls

5) Ring-around-the-Rosie with dolls again, but singing Happy Birthday instead of the standard song.

6) Falling down on Mommy during round one, and then a request for me to whisper in her ear to fall down on Daddy after the second and final round - back to standard Ring-around-the-Rosie song.

7) Natalie said "I'm the baby doggie, you're the mommy doggie and Daddy is the daddy doggie" thus ring around the doggie rosie was born.  The song was barked instead of sung.

8) Next we all became snakes crawling around on the floor.  The song was sung and hissed.

9) Last night it became snake/lion-rosie where we did a combination of hissing and roaring, crawling and pouncing.  I wonder what tonight will bring?

Maybe someday Natalie will be a director.  She always has a clear vision in her mind of what she wants to achieve and is getting very good at communicating her ideas to us.  It's so much fun because we never know what's going to happen next with our creative girl.