Playacting

I have been blessed by kids who have very active imaginations. I never know from one day to the next who I will find running around my house. Sometimes it depends on what was most recently done. For instance, if Kaitlyn and Nathan were allowed to play "Age of Empires" on the computer, the next day I usually find the boys with all the duplos and every toy car we own, spread out across the floor playing their own version of AoE.
Lately I've been seeing a bit more of The Hobbit around the house. Matt has been reading this to the kids in the evenings, and often at the breakfast table, my kids will have vanished, and in their places Gandalf will be asking for more cheerios, or Bilbo and Gollum will be wrestling on the floor or having a conversation.
There's never a dull moment in this house, that's for sure!

Lately, Julianne has been getting into this as well. Her playactings aren't quite as... advanced, but still, I don't remember my other kids, at younger than two actually pretend playing quite as much as she does. She has two favorite themes: being a mommy, or being a doggie.
She absolutely loves her baby dolls (it's nice to see all the dolls that have been in our house for years and Kaitlyn rarely touched finally getting some air!) Her favorite pastime is giving them susu (nursing them). She wrenches down her shirt and shoves her poor baby's head down it and walks around the house. It's rather hilarious.
Her other favorite thing to do is to pretend to be a dog. Randomly she'll announce, "Mama, doggie" and then immediately get on her hands and knees and bouncingly crawl around the house, tongue hanging out, panting. And then, in case I forgot, every few moments she'll again remind me "Mama, doggie", until I acknowledge that Julianne has in fact disappeared, and in her place is a furless, adorable 'doggie'.