Animal Autobiographies

I am continually fascinated by my daughter's imagination. As much as she and I are the same, that is where we differ. My sister and I used to play school together. She was the teacher and I was a student along with all her stuffed animals. She made up the class roster...there was always Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden. Since I never read any of those books, I'll give her all the credit for creating this world.

My daughter has created a world far greater than my sister's schoolhouse. She's almost like the Doctor Doolittle of stuffed animals. They have names and personalities and voices when she speaks for them. It's all quite amazing and somewhat entertaining.

Today while we were in the car, out of the blue, she said to me, "Mom, you know Decky my panda. Well, he's not a very good drawer because he sleeps all the time. He drew a picture of a horse and dad said it looks like a rhinoceros with a crew cut." Intriguing – right? Then she went on to say, "His motto is shut your yap because he's always sleeping."

As soon as we got home I asked her to see the picture. It was part of a series she did one night while playing in her room. She had her animals write autobiographies which she has taped all over her walls. (Side note: she has a placemat in her room with a map of the U.S. so each animal was from a different state. Decky's from Wyoming.)

Decky's autobiography
(double-click the image to enlarge)

She was a difficult baby and those first couple years with her were rough, but is the type of thing that makes you realize it was all worth it.