Our nephew Aiden is three years old. He may be little but his imagination is bigger than life. It's a joy to see the world through his eyes, and to remember what it was like to be three years old ourselves.
Aiden will often disappear for a few minutes and then burst back into the room a totally different person... or hero... or animal. He commits to every character, creating funny voices, dramatic body language, and clever costumes.
"Good-Guy-Darth-Vader," "The Gingerbread Man," and "Astronaut Aiden" all make frequent appearances.
Aiden was recently all snuggled up with Nick on the couch watching a movie.
Sweetly...
Peacefully...
Calmly...
Suddenly Aiden leapt off the couch (using his uncle as a springboard), darted across the room, grabbed his favorite blanket (the one with all the buffalos on it), and dove back into Nick's lap, burrowing under the buffalos. Aiden's adorably deep and gruff "default voice" was replaced by one much higher, and squeaky.
"I'm a baby tiger, and you're a daddy tiger," Aiden squeaked.
"You're a very cute baby tiger," Nick replied. "What's your name?"
Without a beat he answered with glee: "Baby Rah-Rah."
Everyone within ear-shot went "Awwwwwwwww," and Nick turned into a man-puddle.
Now we're all doing everything we can to make "Rah-Rah" stick as a permanent nickname.