Imagine that

Cailan's imagination has burst wide open. Right now this shows most in his play with stuffed animals. A couple days ago, they were all going on a hike at a place he called "Western Canyon". They also hiked to the top of a mountain. Yesterday, they hiked to "Eastern Canyon."

He has been naming all his animals. The first one to get a name was the guinea pig that Keri gave him for Christmas. He told me one evening that its name was Bannelcap, except that he didn't enunciate it all that clearly so I wasn't quite sure what the name was. I asked him to repeat it several times and still I couldn't tell exactly what he was saying. Finally, I asked him to spell it (why I asked this of a 2 and a half year old remains a mystery) and he said "B..A..N..L..C..P". Sure, he left out most of the vowels, but he had enough of the consonants that I could finally understand the name.

The next animal to get a name was his stuffed elephant, seen here snacking on a blue frog:


He told me that the elephant was named Genes, and he specifically said that it starts with a G. I think in Cailan's mind it is equivalent to the word "jeans", which actually sounds as though it should start with a G.

Next, he named the small teddy bear "Overalls" - this is what tells me that the elephant is also named for a garment. His blue bird that is his one and only happy meal toy is named "Bunge" and his soft yellow duck is named "Doh".

Finally, he has started naming himself. He made up a clown fish called "Apples" and now he pretends that he is "Apples."