Mommy, did you send my message?

To Daddy? Yes, I did.

Did he buy pixie dust already?

I think he needs more time in finding a pixie dust store.

And if he could not find?

Hmm.. maybe.. you can.. um.. wish that for your birthday.

Oh okay, that’s a great idea!

(Eeeeek. Why did I say that. Checking Pinterest. How to make pixie dust. Shiiiiks.)

She has been talking about “flying” for the past few days and she is delightfully SERIOUS about it.

Over the summer, she fancied herself as Vidia, the fast-flying fairy from Pixie Hollow, but this is the first time that she actually wanted to FLY. She said she wanted to touch the clouds and that she’d cry if she couldn’t. See the whole post HERE.

What more if I introduce Peter Pan to her. I was reserving this book for next week, but I thought it might already be the best time to bring it out.

“You know what we could do while Daddy is still looking for a pixie dust store? We can read a story about 3 kids in London who flew with Peter Pan to Never Land.”

Flew??? Fly?! 

“Uh-huh.”

To Never Land? Is that a place?

“Yip.”

Let’s read! Let’s read!

To refresh your memory, Peter Pan is the magical story of a boy who never wanted to grow up. He lives in the enchanted world of Never Land together with Tinkerbell, Tiger Lily, the Lost Boys, and his greatest enemy, Captain Hook, whose left hand was eaten by a Tick Tock Crocodile.

Mia loved the book so much we read it 3x during the day.

And when evening came, she delayed bedtime by saying she needed to poop (I always fall for this tactic.) only to see that she didn’t produce anything and she just wanted to read for the 4th time.

Surprisingly though, it is neither Peter nor Wendy that she likes. Not even Tinkerbell as most would expect.

It is Michael (the youngest Darling boy) and Tick Tock Croc that she loves. Michael for being baby-like and the croc for wanting to gobble up the rest of Hook.

She’s also fascinated with Captain Hook. She’s in awe of how a pirate could only have one hand and a hook on the other.

I haven’t given it much thought before, perhaps because I never really looked at the many adaptations of Peter Pan in a child’s point of view, but I realize now how brilliant this story is for preschoolers. It totally ignites their imagination.

Mia couldn’t stop talking about it!

Day in and day out, it totally consumed her thoughts to the point that I was already close to letting her watch the Disney cartoon version.

But not yet, right? Like many adult readers who read the book before watching it on film, we don’t want to rob kids the opportunity to visualize. The chance to paint their own pictures and create images of Never Land in their minds. We want them to envision what the characters are like should they come to life.

The following day, for example, she said,

Let’s go to London, Mommy.

“London?”

Yes, where Wendy and John and Michael are! Did Daddy find pixie dust already?

“Not yet.”

Ok, maybe we’ll just ride the airplane to London first and meet Tinkerbell there to ask for pixie dust. But where is London, Mommy?

“It’s in Europe.”

The continent?

“Yes.”

Oh okay, now I know! We can go there! Mommy, can you call Tinkerbell?

“Call?”

Let’s tell her I’m going to help. I’ll help her take the bomb away as far as we can. And we will fly away from the bomb as fast as we can before it explodes! Oh, wait. No. Maybe, I’m going to tell her my name first. My name would be Alexa. We will go to Never Land, Mommy. But you won’t be Mommy, you will be Francesca.

I love it when she does this. When she includes us in the story, when she adds roles, and when she sees how she can be part of the action.

I allow myself to get wrapped in all her whimsical ideas sometimes.

And that is also why I don’t have the heart to break it to her that humans couldn’t fly.

In fact, with the recent floods and heavy traffic, I’m starting to think it would be really great if we could. LOL.

Anyway, why am I sharing this..

One of the advantages of having an early talker is it is easier for us to know how our child thinks. If your kids cannot express their thoughts very well yet, this might give you an idea of how their minds work every time you read to them. There’s a big possibility that they imagine things in a similar way.

Read: 5 Fun Ways To Help Your Baby Talk

I usually hear Mia’s inner most thoughts right before bedtime and I always find myself saying, “Oh, so that’s how big the effect is on her when the mermaids were mean.” or “Oh, so that’s what she thinks of the captain when he cried.”

Her ideas are most of the time different from mine. They’re raw and naive. Kids see the simplest and the most obvious of things which adults no longer see, and at the same time they also see the “unusual” and the many other possibilities.

It’s truly wonderful. So I really hope you make time to read to your child today. 🙂 As Stephen King said,

Books are a uniquely portable magic.

I would sure want some pixie dust and fly to London like how Mia imagined. Which reminds me, I need to go find a recipe for that. Bye for now.

Don’t forget to share this to other parents you know. 🙂 What other books do you recommend? Share in the comments below. 🙂