Paintbrushes and blueberries

One of the fun things about watching your kids grow is seeing their imaginations develop. Liam and Mallory are both going through phases right now where they have one-track minds and are constantly playing out a variation of a scenario that they have gotten into their heads. It’s a bit tedious to replay these scenes day in and day out, but then again – they are awfully cute.

Liam has a paintbrush that he likes to carry around and run along all of the woodwork in the house, and then we are not allowed to touch it because it is wet paint. It started a couple of weeks ago in the living room, where we have an entire wall of built-in shelves and cupboards around the TV and stereo equipment and the fireplace. It’s painted white. I asked Liam what colour he was painting it, and the answer was: white. Duh, mom. Every once in a while I will walk into the living room to find him with paintbrush in hand, and he will say, “You can’t touch this shelf, you can’t touch this door, you can’t touch here on the fireplace, and you can’t touch over there.” The next day, the paint dries and it all changes. Right now he is working his way around the window casings in the breakfast nook and playroom. Sooner or later I will have an entire house full of freshly-painted woodwork, and you know what? Good. Because this house is scarcely a year old, but to look at the banged-up woodwork (courtesy of the kids), you would never know it!

As for Mallory, she is inexplicably obsessed with blueberries. (She doesn’t eat them, mind you. For some reason blueberries are on her blacklist (then again… there are few foods that aren’t!...)) At least I know where this one started. Cindy has an outdoor wreath covered in tiny faux purple berries, and they blow down in the wind. Mallory started out by scavenging these off the front porch and driveway. Then she graduated to picking up pebbles, little sticks, etc. and calling those her blueberries. And then it progressed to her ‘collecting’ imaginary blueberries from just about everywhere we go. This never fails to puzzle our host when we are out. “I’m going to get some blueberries,” Mallory will announce as she exits the room, and the homeowner is always left standing there looking puzzled: how and where and why is Mallory finding blueberries in his or her living room? Either that, or they assume Mallory just wants some blueberries (if only that were true!), they offer up a bowlful. Only to be denied, of course.