Storytelling

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Kids Have Wonderful Imaginations… Because They Have To!

October 21, 2012 at 9:33 pm , by 

23 months.

If I was ever convicted of a heinous crime, I would rather be executed than to have to live out the rest of my life in prison.

Because I don’t deal with boredom well at all… unless I have an outlet.

Granted, I’m pretty confident I won’t suddenly decide to become a serial killer any time soon, so I really don’t have anything to worry about.

Hi. I’m Nick Shell and this is my positive and upbeat blog about fatherhood.

For a minute there you may have felt like you were on the wrong channel or at least that I’ve been watching too muchCSI or Shawshank Redemption.

Actually, that was my way of indirectly helping to remind us all for a minute what it was like to be bored as a kid.

To think of how my 23 month-old son has to remain strapped into a car seat for an hour each day…

How is he not bored out of his mind? I give him toys and books to occupy him, but those only help for so long.

In general, as a kid, you are dragged around by your parents, having to go wherever they take you, as you hope there will be something at least halfway interesting once you get there.

Our brains process loneliness as pain, as I learned from a National Geographic documentary on solitary confinement.

Often, loneliness and boredom go hand in hand.

So my theory is that children have to have good imaginations in order to survive childhood. It’s part of the process of growing stronger.

Tis the season for plentiful amounts of made-in-China Halloween toys.

Notice the Jack-o-lantern necklace Jack is wearing in the picture above.

He ran around the house this morning pretending it was shooting lasers, calling the sci-fi pumpkin weapon his “Orange Jake Ball.”

Evidently he forgot the word for pumpkin, but remembered that yesterday he painted pumpkins with his new friend Jake.

That’s a boy’s imagination alright.

And then there’s the rubber eyeball…

I made the mistake of letting him carry it upstairs with him during bath time. Needless to say, prying it out of his hand for bedtime was not an easy task:

“My eyeball!…”.

Jack was so excited this morning when we not only let him have some “fluffy” but also let him have his eyeball as part of the scenery.

This afternoon we walked to the community Fall Festival. Along the way, Jack found an Osage-Orange, also known as a hedge-apple.

Basically, it’s a strange brain-looking fruit that is inedible but is used in making insecticides.

Fortunately, Jack’s “yellow ball” along with his eyeball helped the two of us have a more legitimate presence in a social gathering where a good number of the people there were in Halloween costumes.

With his 2nd birthday coming up in a few weeks, I know he will be receiving some really cool Thomas & Friends die cast metal toys, because that’s what we’re getting for him.

But it’s good to know that even without real toys, Jack would manage just fine with a rubber eye ball, a pumpkin necklace, and a prehistoric fruit that looks like a brain.

Yes, kids have wonderful imaginations… because they have to!

That’s how they deal with living in a big, scary, unknown world.

Actually, that should give us adults every reason to keep our childlike imaginations.

I say that because I know, at least for me, the world I live in isn’t small, safe, or fully understandable.

 

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Parallel Play: Like An “It’s Complicated” Facebook Status

October 20, 2012 at 10:12 pm , by 

23 months.

Several times now, Jack has played with his new friend, Jake. Each time in the days that follow, Jack will randomly whine, “I want Jake…”.

I always instantly respond: “Really?!”

And when I say “Really?!” it has the tone of someone who is surprised in a peculiar way.

Jack’s friend Jake is a very kind, intelligent, and wonderful boy. It’s not that Jake isn’t cool, because he totally is.

The thing that’s weird about this is that when Jack and Jake play together, they don’t really play with each other.

Instead, they play somewhat away from each other, despite each other and around each other.

So really, it’s nearly a stretch to even say they actually play together.

After bringing this up to Jake’s mom today while our boys were painting pumpkins, she explained to me that this behavioral phase is called “Parallel Play.”

Cool, so it’s normal after all.

It’s just that with every other friend Jack plays with, it’s more of a thing where they spend half their time basically fighting over a toy and the other half laughing while chasing each other around.

With Jack and Jake, it’s like they have this mutual agreement:

“So listen, just let me attempt to have some ‘me time’ today even though you’re like 4 feet away from me. I’d really appreciate it. Nothing personal.

I’ll do my thing. You’ll do yours. Everybody’s happy. Thanks, man.”

After 3 play dates now, these two bosom buddies/perfect strangers have yet to look at each other in the eyes or communicate with each other in any way.

But that’s what Jack likes so much about Jake:

Jake gives Jack the piece of mind that he won’t be messed with. It’s mutual chill time for the two toddler dudes.

Needless to say, to the outsider, their friendship status is “It’s complicated.”

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Teaching My Son To Be Funny And Interesting, Because It Matters

October 20, 2012 at 3:25 pm , by 

23 months.

If you’re born an American male, then there is a subtle pressure for you to be funny and interesting. A famous quote by Marilyn Monroe backs this up:

“If you can make a girl laugh, you can make her do anything.”

Well said.

When my wife and I randomly met in line at a taping for a concert in Nashville on October 5, 2006, I didn’t capture her attention by my looks.

Instead, I did it through my eccentric charm; which largely consists of telling off-beat real life stories, laced in deadpan humor, illustrated with dramatic hand motions which I subconsciously learned from my Italian grandfather while growing up.

Why is it that the majority of comedians and writers throughout history have been and still are men?

Because we sort of have to be both funny and interesting. I believe it’s part of survival of the fittest for men, in particular.

So now after 6 years of meeting my wife, we are raising a nearly 2 year-old son.

A son who will grow up needing to be both interesting and funny.

Needless to say, it is my role as the dad to teach him to become these things. The tricky part is making sure he’s not obnoxious instead.

A person who is too interesting is in danger of becoming nerdy and boring.

A person who is too funny is in danger of become distant and insensitive.

My son Jack has proven to me that he has the funny gene. So right now, I’m starting to be proactive in helping him direct his natural talent.

I don’t want Jack to be the little boy who thinks he’s funny just because certain people laugh when he does something they think is cute. For example, when a little boy goes up to strangers and says, “Hi!”

After the stranger replies, the boy becomes a broken record in an attempt to obtain a collection of repeat laughs: “Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi!…”

That’s the worst.

The most important part of being interesting and funny is the timing and theatrics of the delivery.

I can see how even at just 23 months-old, when Jack does something funny like stick his thumb in applesauce, then look up at his Mommy and I and say, “Oh no!” like it’s some kind of tragic accident with a worried look on his face, he waits for us to laugh before he does.

That’s comedy in the making.

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The Stories Of Helicopter Parents

October 19, 2012 at 10:59 pm , by 

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Stuff My 23 Month-Old Toddler Son Says

October 18, 2012 at 11:08 pm , by 

23 months.

Makeshift sentences are a new discovery.

Gone are the days of simple exclamations like “Mine!” and “More! More!”

My son is now finding a way to utilize his favorite dozen or so words in basically any and every situation.

Ultimately, according to Jack, things are either sleepy, sad, biting, or crashing.

Yesterday morning it was “Ahh! Train bite!”

I turned around to see him in his car seat, sticking his finger in Percy the Train’s face.

(Thanks to Jack’s on-again/off-again biting bouts with his friend Sophie, he knows the word “bite” pretty well.)

And if he can’t evoke fake sympathy from me in an attempt to pretend a human being bit him, he figures a Thomas & Friends metal die-cast train is just as capable of biting him instead.

“Oh no! Crash!”

That’s what I hear on a daily basis from the back seat when we’re driving home from daycare. I’ll look up in the distance and see a car for sale, parked in someone’s yard.

Apparently, if a car is not on the road, it has crashed, and it worries Jack.

Of course, since he’s obsessed with his toy vehicles, I’m pretty sure he’s more concerned with the well-being of the cars themselves, not the actual people inside of them.

This morning when Jack was helping me check my Facebook, he saw a picture of the daughter of a college friend named Sara Hilton.

The picture was of little Alaina playing in the leaves and it had earned dozens of “likes.”

Jack’s response: “Oh no! Crash!”

My assumption is that because A) he couldn’t really see her legs and B) there were leaves in the air, not on the ground, he thought that Alaina had “crashed” in the leaves.

Obviously, it’s quite a stretch to say that someone crashes when they’re actually playing in the leaves, but for the sake of my son learning how to use the English language, I’ll accept his perception of the event.

This would explain why when Jack’s toys are constantly either sleepy, sad, biting each other, or crashing.

But I know that eventually, more verbs and emotions will come into play. As for now, he has to work with what he’s got.