Baby Dinosaurs

Friday afternoon Benjamin came home from daycare proud to have learned that Dinosaurs lay eggs. We went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for pizza and the four of us (DH, Me, Ben, Felicity) were sitting in the living room, and Ben said he wanted to play dinosaurs. It started normal enough, with him and DH stomping around, short little T-Rex arms but big steps, roaring mouths, but then Ben interrupted the play and laid flat out on the floor and announced he was laying eggs, dinosaur eggs. He did not understand that laying meant anything other than being supine, so he was laying on the floor, "laying" eggs. Then he started handing us the eggs to help take care of. He announced he had laid 67 (productive day, and I did not even know he knew numbers that big). He handed one to DH and DH immediately pretended to eat it. Ben MELTED DOWN. Flipped out. Full Mandrake Face. His dad, after all, had just eaten one of his babies.I chastised DH who quickly reversed and said "no no I was only pretending to eat the egg." (Thus creating a layer of imagination in which he pretended to eat the pretend egg, but actually was caring for it). Crisis averted. Ben handed me some eggs and I promised not to eat them. We sat there for several minutes just looking at each other, our palms upturned holding imaginary eggs. Ben was walking around the living room "taking care" of the rest of them. Then DH said one of his eggs was hatching. It was a T-Rex. Then I said mine were hatching. Benjamin tended to them as they hatched and "laid" on the other unhatched eggs on the floor so they would stay warm. As they hatched he would feed them, he gave some of them pacifiers. He chased off the scary/mean dinosaur that was going to eat his babies. We played this for some time actively, but eventually did other things. Then, as we were leaving,, he asked to make sure that we were bringing them home. I assured him all 67 dinosaur eggs/babies were in the car. By Saturday morning all the eggs had  hatched. By Saturday afternoon, they were learning to walk. I pointed out to Benjamin that they were learning and growing just like him and Felicity. He said NO! They are not growing, only learning. (Ben does not want to grow up as of late).

The baby dinosaurs now make periodic appearances throughout our days of play. Last night at bedtime, they all came up with us. Benjamin kept calling me up to his crib and asking for pacifiers for the dinosaurs until I finally told him I was handing him 67 of them (of course, then his stuffed panda bear needed one ten minutes later). He is so loving towards these imaginary mini dinosaurs that are running all over our house, it is adorable. I had to write this tidbit down before I forgot more of it.

(In Felicity news, she is able to put her pacifier in and out of her mouth, she really likes toys, things to grab and try to eat, she likes her bouncer which we just got out, she likes trying to stand up in it. She is not quite rolling or sitting up yet).