Watch Out, Shakespeare!

On the way home from a quick trip to Target this evening, Riley started telling me about a boy who was running. At first I thought she was referring to someone she had seen in the fairly empty store. But as she told me more, I realized that she wasn’t explaining something she had seen. Our 21-month-old was making up a story! It took her a long time to tell it, because she would repeat each detail several times, and each time she’d wait for me to acknowledge what she’d said.

Essentially, the story went something like this. There was a boy running and then he knocked it over. [I have no idea what “it” is.] The boy was sad. His mommy was sad. Then she kissed it all better. Mommy said, “Come here, Boy!” [This was the funniest part of the story, because she kept repeating it, and every time she said it, Mommy sounded more and more exasperated with Boy.] The boy didn’t obey, so Mommy said “Time out!”

And by then we were home. I was more than a little surprised. When asked, she’ll tell you that three of her four doll’s names are Baby. But she’s got the imagination and reasoning skills to make up a whole story about a pretend boy. What a kid.