Putting a Flourishing Imagination to good use

I love being the mother of a 4-year-old! I must admit that being a mother of a 3-year-old was a bit of challenge...even tougher than being the mother of a 2-year-old. I tell my mommy friends that the 3's are harder than the 2's because the child is testing their intellectual muscles rather than their physical muscles but they are harder to reason with. Once they become four, the conversations get a bit more interesting. Right now, James' imagination is going wild! It's great. Yesterday he was "mailbot". He found a box and put toys in it and then he would bring it to me where ever I was in the house and say, "I have a package for you." And I would have to open it. In it, there was always toys for James. Nothing for me! But, art imitates life and James is the one who gets all the packages around here. The day before that, I dubbed him "Rainman". It had nothing to do with the movie. He was playing with an umbrella and he came up to me and asked me if I knew his name. I took one look at him with the umbrella on his shoulder and I said, "You're Rainman." Well, it stuck. It turned out to be an interesting day. "Rainman" stuck around while James was at work (he works at the mall apparently) and he called me "Connie" or "James' Mom". The most wonderful part of the day was when Chris came home and we sat down to eat dinner. Rainman joined us. I introduced him to Chris and he shook his hand and said, "Hello Chris". He ate cereal instead of trying the vegetable soup I had made but he wanted to know if James tried new foods. We told him that James is a little scared to try new foods and maybe he could help by talking to James. He pretended to talk to his invisible friend James who was sitting at the table with us. Rainman reported that James said he would try it. Then, we convinced him to SHOW James how to try new food. It worked! "Rainman" showed James how to eat a couple of carrot pieces from the soup. It was wonderful to see him try something that he was really reluctant to do. We praised him and he was really proud of himself. I think I like Rainman. He can stay as long as he likes!