Imaginary Play

I've always been impressed with Alex' sense of imaginary play, but sometimes I'm just astonished at what she comes up with and the lengths to which she'll go to preserve the integrity of her imaginations. Yesterday when I announced to the girls that we needed to run some errands, Alex asked, "Can I bring my birdie?" I asked, "What birdie?" She responded somewhat exacerbated, "THIS birdie!" as she held up her cupped hands to me. I said, "Oh! What a pretty birdie!" What's her name?" And to my surprise she immediately responded, "Chicka". "What a wonderful name! What color is Chicka?" Again, no hesitation, "Green". So now I'm getting into it and this is where I made my mistake, "Okay. You can bring Chicka. Just make sure you don't let her fly away." Duh! I wish I would think before blurting things out. So you can imagine what our shopping trip was like...

Alex cooing: pretty birdie. You're such a pretty birdie. NO! NO! COME BACK BIRDIE!! DON'T FLY AWAY!! COME BAAAAAAAACK!!!!

Me: ALEX COME BACK RIGHT NOW! STOP RUNNING! WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING! I'm so sorry, she thinks her birdie flew away. ALEEEEEEX, COME BAAAAACK!"

I finally catch up to her because she's no longer running, but now beaming, "It's all better now. My birdie came back and she's okay. Don't fly away again, okay, Chicka!"

And before I could stop and think first I found myself snapping, "Make sure you don't let her go again!"