Taumpy

MH went to the playground with her daddy last night (sucker!) This is the old school slide at the farmer's market. Last summer, MH fell off the slide ONE TIME and forever after it became known as that place "where I fell off the slide." Not that place where I had countless beautiful experiences of playing with other children, dancing to live music, eating hot delicious kettle corn, petting angora bunnies, etc. Nope. Your kid falls off a slide one time, and everything good immediately gets erased. I guess from a fall like that she could have suffered more extensive brain damage than selective, judgy memory, so maybe I should feel lucky.

Anyway, I got some more playground rant left in me, but this is all on me. Over the summer, MH invented (befriended?) an imaginary person named Taumpy. When we're at the playground, she'll start pushing the empty swing and be like, "I'm pushing Taumpy! She likes to go high!" or whatever. I have to say, this was kind of a break through experience for me as a parent. When MH was around one or so, I had the realization that she was smarter than the dogs. And that's pretty much where she's stayed in my idea of her. But coming up with this imaginary friend makes me realize that she's not just smarter than the dogs, she's totally a person! Like a separate human being who thinks and imagines and feels things that are completely independent of my thinks and imaginings and feels. It's both exciting and terrifying.

Of course, I have to totally ruin it. I have to be such an annoying grown up about it. I ask her about Taumpy CONSTANTLY which just takes all of the spontaneity and whimsy out of the thing. "So where's Taumpy right now?" I ask her. Sometimes she'll throw me a bone and be like, "She's over there, eating grass" or something. But other times, she'll roll her eyes and be like, "Whatever." (Yes. My two year old rolls her eyes and says WHATEVER. Like she's 13 and hates my guts.) And when that happens, the overwhelming realization that my kid is a separate human person with all of her own ideas and feelings crushes me.