Snips & Snails & Puppy Dog Tails

Today Nate wanted to play with this little finger puppet stage that we have. Ava was back in her room, and this was a rare one-on-one moment for him and me, so I grabbed the stage for him and put two felt finger puppets--a moose and a giraffe--on his stubby little index fingers. (The Ikea puppets, if anyone's interested!)

Nate held up his two little characters, I applauded, and the show began. Now, even though he's almost three, there's not a ton of talking going on yet, so he mostly began saying, "Heh-ro" to me and waggling his fingers. He did it in a growly, deep voice that reminded me of that Red-rum scene from "The Shining". He was a little short on ideas, so I started saying, "Why don't you guys have a nap, why don't you play, why don't you have some lunch, etc." Just trying to thicken the plot a bit and give him some ideas, I guess.

Rather than doing all the stuff I was suggesting, Nate decided to have the moose begin to eat the giraffe. (Which I suppose does make for a way-more interesting plotline.) One minute they were "helloing" each other, and the next, the giraffe lay on his side, and the moose was gleefully taking bites of his midsection. Complete with munching and swallowing sounds, provided by Nate. I started to laugh, "The moose is eating the giraffe?" "Yahhh!", says Nate. "But I thought they were friends." "No, moose baaad! Munch munch munch..."

I was struck (again) at the difference between boys and girls. Even at that age, Ava would've began constructing this social world--one puppet would've been the mom, the other the dad, there would've been a baby. There would've been elaborate bedtime rituals for each finger puppet, discussions of what to have for puppet-dinner, conversations about what to do at the puppet-park, or whatever. She has always been interested in the process of things--roles, and creating little worlds for her characters. Nate is so not having any of that! Let's just skip all the relating and get to the action, please! And it better involve cars crashing and/or carnivores.

To be honest, I was much more entertained by watching the moose eat the giraffe, anyway. Then, they had a nice bath and the giraffe ate the moose. The circle of life.