This is new to me. As a girl, I don't believe I ever played by narrating out every single thing I was doing. Yes, my Barbie's carried on civil conversations, my babies maybe needed a bottle now and then and my Holly Hobby oven worked great, but I never explained what I was cooking as I was cooking it. My frame of reference might be a little skewed because I do not belong to this gender.
But this seems like a perfectly normal thing to do to my boys. They have been narrating their play ever since Bennett could talk. I would be open to a hosting a psychological study of this phenomenon. I keep telling myself that I need to sit down within ear shot one day and just write down every single thing they say as they're playing. Too bad I don't know short hand. They talk so fast and the story changes pace so quickly I can barely keep up. But today, I persevered and was able to record a 2 minute exchange of fast paced, random ideas as they bounced back and forth between each boy - neither of them missing a beat. This might not make sense to us, but in their little imagination world, it all flows together perfectly.
Bennett: "Your muscles are breaking and cracking....you have a beard..."
Gavin: (laughing hysterically) "no, snakes don't have beards..."
Gavin: "....and then you open the door..."
Interspersed between each comment are 'boy sounds' (for lack of a better descriptive word). You know....arghhh....awwwww.....kbush....bam.....pow.....splat....and other random sounds of rolling on the floor, wrestling, jumping, falling, attacking.....just your run of the mill 'boy sounds'.
Bennett: "...then the ceiling broke down...and you got in the rain..."
Gavin: "...I'm an agile snake..."
Bennett: "...then why did you trip?"
Gavin: "....because I wasn't suspecting you...then a hole opened up in the ground, just as my tail go in it shut and no bomb could come in...."
Bennett: "...now we're in the jungle, my tail wrapped onto a vine..."
Gavin: "...then suddenly, all my friends appeared from the trees..."
Bennett: "...then suddenly, I had a million heads, a million tails, a million bodies..."
......insert loud groan here.....
Bennett: "...then I grab onto all the snakes in the universe..."
Gavin: "...suddenly the trees began to move but they weren't trees at all, just bushes on 13 rattle snakes coiled up..."
Bennett: "...and then right as one almost touched me..."
Gavin: "...then suddenly I sucked up all my snakes and they all appeared, copperhead, rattlesnake, watersnake....Watersnake flooded the place and then it turned into the ocean...."
Bennett: "how you doin friend?"
Then as abruptly as it began, it ends. Suddenly it's quiet and still. I begin to contemplate if I should be worried...that is until I hear Gavin reading, "Pirate Mom" to Bennett. Then it segways into Legos. Then just as abruptly, that activity stops and they are suddenly cowboys needing me to tie on their bandanas and Bennett is affectionately riding Bruce with his tinker toy gun stuck into his pants.
If all this play in some way helps them role play for the men they will become...I am REALLY curious as to the line of work they will be choosing.
