Gideon the Cowboy

Gideon is my 3 year old son.  And he is ALL boy!!  He loves robots, dinosaurs, cowboys, cars, etc.  He loves to wrestle around with my husband, to watch TV, and to sing, dance, run, scream, etc.  But man, does he have an active imagination.  He's constantly playing one imaginary scenario or the other.  Sometimes he'll shift from one into another, and you'd better be quick to keep up with his train of thought!

The other morning, Gideon came bounding into my room at about 7AM with his black, felt cowboy hat on.  "I'm Woody and you're Jessie," he quickly informed me.

"Well, Jessie's going back to sleep," I replied.  (It had been a long night with my 1 year old heart patient son, Atticus.)

"No, no, Mommy.  I'm Woody and you're Jessie!", Gideon reaffirmed to me.

OK, I thought.  I'll give him a mission.  "Listen Woody!  Do you hear that?!  It's your teddy bear!  He's trapped and you have to save him!  Quickly!  Don't waste time!"

And with that, Gideon smiled and ran out of my room.  I lazily rolled back over and cuddled with my husband, who was snoring away, oblivious to the interchange I had just had.  A few minutes later, Gideon comes bounding back into the room, teddy bear in hand, and gives the bear to me.

"Oh, thank you!  Thank you!", I said in my best bear impression.  "You SAVED me, Woody!"

And my wonderful Gideon, without missing a beat, reaches up, touches the corner of his cowboy hat like he was straight out of an old-timey western, and says, "My pleasure."  I laughed so hard I almost rolled off the bed, all while Gideon stood there looking rather pleased with himself.  This is the sort of imagination I'm talking about.  There are numerous other stories similar in addition to this one, but this being the most recent, I thought I'd share it.  Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!  LOL!