Loose Strife

Naomi has this role playing schtick that I’ve mentioned before. It’s her thing and has been for about a year. It’s delightful to watch. Little House On The Prairie is a favorite. “I’ll be Laura, you can be Pa, Mommy is Ma, and Lily’s not playing.” The last is a running joke in the house because Lily almost always refuses to participate in Naomi’s fantasy world. Naomi will then take on the other roles unannounced as you talk with her. “No, I’m not Laura, I’m baby Carrie.” “No I’m not baby Carrie, I’m Jack the dog.”
Sometimes it gets really weird when she builds mutant characters. “Let’s play birds. I’ll be the baby bird. You be the Daddy bird. And Mommy will be the Mommy bird.” (And Lily’s not playing.) “No wait,” she says. “Let’s play Max and Ruby.” (Children of friends of ours.) “I’ll be baby Ruby bird. And Mommy is Ms Anne Bird. And Daddy is Tall Boy Bird. Do you want to come to my ice skating party?!”
It can become very confusing, but somehow Naomi keeps it all straight in her head and will transfer both real and imagined traits to participants. In the bath last night she had a set of four dolphins who were her children: Naomi, Lily, Evangeline and Kaia. She was the Daddy named David. And Lily was Laura, who had a bad back.
The easiest way to get Naomi worked up is to request a different role. “Let’s play Laura and Mary,” she’ll say. And before she can assign roles I might say something like, “I’ll be Mr Edwards.” That gets her screaming mad.
So I’m feeling bitter about being typecast. How come she can switch roles all the time, but I’m always Pa? Or Burt (from Mary Poppins)? Or Caillou’s Dad (PBS TV show)? Or Joseph?
“Let’s play Baby Jesus,” she says a lot these days. The Christmas story has captured her imagination since the holidays. “I’ll be baby Jesus. Mommy can be Mary. You can be Joseph. Lily can be Harold Angel.” (Not a joke.)
“I’m not playing!” Lily shouts.
I was stacking wood yesterday and Naomi found a large planter box in the snow and crawled in. “I’m lying in the manger,” she says. This time even Lily was intrigued and agreed to spread her arms wide above Naomi while standing on a stump.
Sometimes, though, when there’s nobody to join her, she’ll just make it all up on her own. After we came inside, Naomi got into the pantry. I walked in to find all sorts of items arranged on the floor. I picked a few up and started to put them away.
“Hey!” Naomi shouts. “It’s not nice to steal gifts from baby Jesus!”
I put them back. And she then tells us that the box of macaroni and cheese in the plastic container is baby Jesus in a manger. The cereal boxes are the three kings. Mary and Joseph are the pair of juice bottles. The rest of the bottles are shepherds and angels. Some protein supplement and a large box of more mac and cheese were gifts for the chosen one.
The drama never stops.