Imaginary snow storm

Jonathan has recently made a quantum leap when it comes to his imagination games. With the advanced age if 3.5 years he is finally playing imaginary games with his teddy bear (his main “action figure”, as he has no dolls) and other pretending games. A snow storm in the kitchen was the most recent imagining highlight.

Magic is the key to my son's new found happiness. We have a game in which Jonathan is the magician and I am affected by his magic. Thus I become animals or things and the boy laughs his ball like laugh every time I make ridiculous sounds or pose in a funny way, trying to helplessly simulate a carpet... But the most wonderful thing about this game is that it is the pure invention of Jonathan. He was inspired by a song that his kindergarten teacher sings when celebrating birthdays. The birthday kid is the leading magician and all the children obey various orders such as “jumping” , “lying down”, “roar like lions” etc. Another idea of turning a parent into an animal and then back again is presented in a story Jonathan knows (from the Israeli “Itamar”series).

Jonathan's invention is in the fact that he combined both ideas into a game of his own, and even more so in his decision to include me in the fun!
This game is truly fun and it has become quite a staple in the time we spend together. A wonderful new way to communicate and enjoy each other's company. I am regularly turned into a lion and then into a table – Jonathan finds furniture an especially entertaining feature in this game...the n after not moving for a bout a minute (I am a flat table top, no? or was it a blue balloon?) I am permitted to return to being “mom” again. A transaction for which I am particularly grateful and my smiles are returned by the sheer glee of my son's laughter.

For the Shavout holiday, it is customary to prepare a dairy dinner. At my workplace it was therefor decided to provide a company dairy lunch, with the contributions of the employees. For this occasion I decided to bake cheese boreks and asked Jonathan to help. Jonathan loves to help in the kitchen, and baking is a favorite pass-time because it means that here will be flour! Yes, that lovely white powder (I am referring to regular baking flour...) which makes all the difference. The only thing second to flour is the actual dough. Jonathan was only too eager to sprinkle flour on the kitchen counter and to roll the dough flat. Then he watched me spread the cheese filling, but the passive role was soon boring and so he turned his attention back to the flour. Scattering it in the air and yelling “schnee!” (which means snow in German) happily as he watched the white fluff slowly descend on the kitchen floor.

He then enjoyed wiping his hands on his shirt and watching it turn a shade of white, before repeating the process. I removed the flour basin from him only to watch helplessly as he moved on to the chicken soup powder – again throwing it in the air with glee while declaring that it too looked like snow. The result was one very happy child, excellent boreks and a very messy kitchen! For a pastry that was to take just 10 minutes to prepare and another 15 to bake, I found myself cleaning the kitchen and the living room for at least an hour – Jonathan had run off to show his floury white self to his daddy, thus spreading white powder all over the house! Yet despite the mess and the hard cleaning work, I cannot but smile as I recall Jonathan true happiness in creating his own weather! A home made snow storm of flour and chicken soup powder.