My granddaughter, Carson, age 5, crawled into bed with us Saturday morning about 5:45 a.m. She lives in the Eastern time zone and she was visiting us in the Central time zone so it is understandable that she would be awake and looking for someone else to be awake with her. It started when she crawled up the middle of the bed and snuggled in real close to me. Her little arms were cool so I wrapped my arm around her and thought that maybe she would go back to sleep. Next, she whispered ever so softly, "Grandma." I knew if I didn't answer, she would keep saying it. If I did answer, then she's got me. "Yes, Carson." She whispered that she wanted to play "Rock, paper, scissors." Since the sun was barely up, I could only make out the outline of her little hands in the light coming from the doorway. She, too, figured out that "Rock, paper, scissors" was going to be difficult in the low light conditions. She put on a brief hand puppet show including a flying bird that I suggested looked like a whale's tale. (Alaskan memories) Then she whispered, "Grandma, let's play 'Rock, paper, tickle.'" It is played like the regular game except on the word "tickle" I had to tickle her from head to toe. I was barely awake so it was a half-hearted tickle but she let me know if I forgot her left foot. I finally surrendered and suggested we get up and make coffee.
In the afternoon she organized a game of "Tackle Hopscotch." I have really forgotten how to play hopscotch but it didn't matter to Carson. She makes up her own rules. In "Tackle Hopscotch" the goal is to push the hopper off the blocks and into the holly bush if possible.
Carson has a wonderful imagination. In addition to making up games in the middle of the night, she also makes up stories. Like the story of her big, giant dog, Sammy Coleman who was killed by a red-eyed rattlesnake before her 3rd birthday. Poor child has never had a dog nor seen a rattlesnake. She did see an airplane flying through the clouds and told me how she walked on the clouds to a rainbow castle where she stole one of the princess' animals. Sounded a lot like Jack and the Beanstalk to me. Her mom is a little worried but I think she is quite creative. I remember seeing a movie about Beatrix Potter and how she saw Peter Rabbit and his friends. Who knows? Someday Carson may be a famous writer and make good use of her fabulous imagination. For now, if she tells you she has a broken leg from a red-eyed rattlesnake bite, don't believe her.
