May your dreams always be your reality.

To say my Summit is a kid with a big imagination would be an understatement. He walks around seeing and hearing things that aren't there. I don't mean to say that he's got some kind of personality disorder, but I know that he has fun everywhere he goes by making toys and plants and objects come to life in his own way. If I were to live a day in Summit's shoes (thank goodness he now wears shoes because for the longest time he'd only put rain boots on his feet), I have a feeling I'd spend a lot of time seeing dinosaurs roar at me, Spiderman shoot webs out of his wrists, tigers pounce and tear apart Barbie dolls, or characters in books actually speaking words out of the pages. When he's in his room playing, I sometimes stand outside and listen through the door as a whole universe of adventure comes to life for just him and his toys. He can switch fluently between voices who belong to Sarah (his favorite dinosaur) and her baby boy dinosaur to Buzz Lightyear to ninjas to dragons to whatever else he can dream up, and this kid can dream some whacky stuff up.

At three, he started weaving stories together with such creativity that I often wondered if he was sneaking out of his bedroom at night after we were all asleep and turning on the television to the SyFy channel for inspiration. It's crazy how he produces ideas and characters and creatures. He's got the kind of avant-garde thought processes that Disney creators and Seuss-like authors only dream of possessing. I could listen to him talk and share his fantastical visions for hours. I know that part of it is that he's mine. My kid. But, part of it is that it's that interesting, the stuff he comes up with. In one moment he's a triceratops running from a t-rex and in the next he's Mercy Lou's best dog friend. Some hours he's a dragon and others he's Superman. And even though it kind of freaks me out when he and Mercy Lou lick each other, I love how he can become these other creatures so effortlessly.

When the movie version of Where the Wild Things Are came out in theatres, we took the kids to see it. And Summit LOVED it. He was just two, but he sat quietly and attentively during the entire film. It was like he was in the movie. Like he saw himself as Max. There is a part in the beginning where Max's mom asks him to tell her a story. Here it is.

There were some buildings. They could walk.

Then there were some vampires. One of the vampires bit the tallest building but his fangs broke off. Then all of his other teeth fell out. The vampire started crying.

The other vampires said, "Why are you crying? Aren't those just your baby teeth?"

The vampire said, "No, those are my grown-up teeth."

And the vampires knew he couldn't be a vampire anymore so they left him.

The story is pretty crazy. Does it make sense at first? Probably not to everyone, but if you look deep enough, it does make sense. That's how Summit is. Maybe not as profound and serious as that story, but just as outlandish and chimerical; and if you pay attention to my little guy, he does make sense, but definitely not in the ways that most people are used to. He dances to the beat of his own drummer in other ways, too. Unlike lots of people, he doesn't care which shoes belong on which foot. He doesn't care if his shirt is on backwards and inside out. He doesn't sweat small stuff at all, because he's got bigger stuff to create in his mind. He just goes about his life in his own way. And he's really happy like this.

One night, Matt recorded the kids at dinner telling stories about a dream that they had. Whether or not they actually had them, I will never know, but the craziness that comes out of that video is absurd and hilarious. Ella tells her 'dream' first, and Summit's is second. While I hope this particular dream doesn't come true, it's pretty funny to see him tell it, and to know that he came up with it just.like.that. Here's the video.

I wonder if I ever had that kind of imagination. I wonder if I ever saw the world in the way he does... where anything was possible, where life was so colorful and fun, where animals could talk and humans could fly. I wonder if that's just something people grow out of when the harsh reality of life overtakes that whimsical reality of childhood. I wonder how we can make it so that they can always have big imaginations and big dreams and limitless possibilities. That is my wish for my kids, more than anything, that they know no limits to imagination and success and happiness and good health and love and life.

Oh, my Summy. I love you. I love your imagination. I hope you never lose that part of you. There is so much to share. May your dreams always be your reality. Rooooaaaaarrrrr.