Life Lesson Month of June: Blog 4- Letters from Mom & Mimi

Good Morning Sunshine!

I know I have said it a millions times, but your name is so befitting to you.  Ellie, your name means ‘light’ and you truly are the light of my life as well as so many others!  For my blog this week my story again pertains to you and how easily it is for you to “see” outside the box and change its boundaries, even if it is just for a moment in time.

Life Lesson Learned #17: Playing an actual game of baseball is certainly a lot of fun, but I just found out that playing pretend baseball is even more so!

Ellie, you are such a delight!  Last evening your Mommy called Poppy and me and said that you were both heading down to the park and asked us if we would like to meet you there (of course we said yes!).  So about a half hour later we came upon the two of you, not by the swing sets, but rather on the baseball diamond.  Your Mommy was standing at home plate and you were on the pitchers’ mound.  From a distance, we thought she was hitting balls for you to catch, but as we got closer Poppy and I could see quite clearly that neither of you had any baseball equipment.  Well… “real” equipment that is!  But it was plain to see that you were pretending to throw her a baseball and she was pretending to swing a bat and hit it.  Once you saw Poppy and me you directed us to sit on the bench to be the spectators.  As we rooted for you to tag your mommy out El, you got so excited that you changed the rules of the game… (not that you were following any to begin with) and instructed your Mom to stop what she was doing and to follow you over to where we were sitting.  Then you hopped up onto the batters’ bench to sit with us, as did your mom.  Next, you informed the three of us to continue watching the baseball game that was taking place and to root for the winning team.  Ellie, to you it did not matter that there wasn’t a soul out on that field.  And to us it did not matter either as you were having lots of fun.  But to the people passing by I am sure we had them a bit perplexed!  Anyway, after a few minutes of sitting you decided to change up the teams.  Per your instructions, I was to follow you out into the field, and your Mommy and Poppy were to be the spectators.  Again you took your place on the pitchers’ mound and had me stand at home plate holding a pretend bat.  I had to wait a little bit because you got distracted by the dirt at your feet and bent down to play in it for a while.  Once I yelled to you that I was ready, you stood up again and brushed your hands (yes they were dirty) all over your face and through your hair (I’m guessing that a bath was mandatory when you got home El even though I knew it wasn’t on your Mom’s evening agenda!).  Anyway, you threw the pretend ball at me with both hands.  Like I said, this was your game and your rules.  But you didn’t really throw it at me; it was more like you threw it straight up in the air!  I pretended to hit it and run for first base anyway.  Halfway there you told me to stop and freeze.  You then instructed me to pick up my pretend bat, walk it back over to the opposing team’s side and stand the bat up against the chain-link fence (and yes the fence was real!).  Then you instructed me to follow you over to the batters’ bench and take our seats for the second time.  It was now your Mommy and Poppy’s turn to play while we watched them.  Before they walked out onto the field Ellie I asked you what position they should each play and this is what you said, “Mommy has to be the Bitcher and Poppy has to be the Batter.”  I said, “Excuse me???  What is your Mommy?”  And you said, “She is the Bitcher.  She bitches and Poppy bats.”  I said, “El, you mean your Mommy is the pitcher and she pitches. “  You said excitedly, “Yeah!”  Ellie, I lost it.  I couldn’t stop laughing, nor could your Mommy and Poppy.   Once we got ourselves together again, we continued to play.  You did more running around the fence that protects home plate than the three of us did the whole time we played pretend baseball with you.  None of us ever did get a chance to run all the bases but somehow and at some point you insisted that a homerun was made!  With that we clapped and agreed that the game was finished.  You then decided it was time to go and play on the swing set.  So off we set for the parts of the park where the equipment is ‘real’ and watched you play like a typical three year old: climbing, swinging and just having fun!

So Ellie, I guess my lesson learned this week has been clearly taught to me by you.  Yes, all games have rules and yes, all games may be improvised, but each and every one of us has an imagination with limitless boundaries.  You have shown us how to use imagination in a different light: where its purpose is to have pure and simple fun.  With you, each moment in time holds a special memory because of your imagination El and I know this is just one of many still yet to come!

I love you Best-Friend!

Mimi