Nothing is as it seems

I wrote a little bit ago about Lily's extensive world of imaginary friends.  I had no idea, at the time, that it was just the tip of the iceberg.  Lately we have been living in a world entirely of Lily's imagining.  There are no printed directions, no road map.  I pretty much just muddle through trying to keep track of what is what and who is who and hope that some day I'll recognize things again.

For starters we are STILL princesses - all of us.  The roles don't really change either. She is Cinderella, I am Ariel, Gordon is Jasmine and Quinn is Ursula - but sometimes he's "Masky".  "Masky" is her name for the dude in the mirror in Snow White - a movie she got to see at a friend's house while I was away on a Mom's weekend.  Poor Q- he's going to have an identity crisis before his second birthday. 

Lately she's added some embellishment to the game.  She is Cinderella and she is ten.  She also goes to high school.  She has a castle - it is very far away, in New Hampshire.  But she rides her tricycle to get there.  She is relentless in her adherence to these roles.  I took her to a kid's yoga class last week and the teacher was talking to her before class.  She asked Lily if she went to pre-school.  Lily said very seriously that no, she did  not.  Then she looked at her and said: "I go to high school and I'm ten". 

I am SO in high school

Gordon is working on changing his role from Jasmine to "king".  He seems to believe he can save face on the playground by answering to "king" instead of "Jasmine".  I wish him success in his endeavor.

I could keep track if it were just princess/castle/high school world that was being forced on us.  But instead there are new things that crop up every day.  A few days ago we were on our way to school.  I asked her if she was bringing an animal with her - she went and got her favorite one, a stuffed panda:
Lily: "yup, I'm going to bring my fish"
Me: "your fish?  You're holding Panda"
Lily: "no Mommy, this is a fish.  It's a fish named Panda.  Oh and he looks like a panda.  But he's not a panda.  He's a fish"
Me: ??????
Lily: I have lots of fish.  Elmo has a fish too. 
I went to work thinking how fun it'd be to be a fly on the wall at pickup time when Lily had Gordon searching the classroom for her fish.  I laughed about that for a while, but then felt bad and warned him.  In order to keep things fresh, today she came into my room to show me her "cat".

Taking care of her fish

And then there are the games.  Auntie Lindsay and Amber gave her an adorable dominoes set for her birthday.  I love that as we can play actual games now - she enjoys Memory, CandyLand, the Goodnight Moon game.  But I am realizing that "games that Mommy likes to play too" phase is taking a hiatus.  The other day she had the dominoes all spread out.  Quinn was asleep and I was happy to have some time to play with her.  So I suggested that we play dominoes:
Lily: Mommy, these aren't dominoes, this is the quiz game.
Me: oh, I see - how do you play that?
Lily goes on about some crazy rules that make no sense and really don't make for a fun game.  I think we had to line up the dominoes and then pick them up one at a time saying "hello hello" as if it were a telephone. I don't know - it wasn't a very good quiz game. Eventually she tires of this and says:
Lily: OK, do you want to play dominoes now
Me: Sure! 
So I start eagerly turning over the dominoes, before she has a chance to change her mind.
Lily: " No mommy!  That's the QUIZ GAME.  The dominoes are over THERE.  points to a pile of puzzle pieces
Me: head explodes

It's like no one told her that she's the daughter of a very literal, play-by-the-rules, engineer.  I do not do creativity and imagination well.  However, I am truthfully pleased that she's got such an active, creative play style.  I also get the feeling that she really enjoys messing with me.

What?  Just figure it out already, MOM