The Architect

Some of you may have seen them in person, but most of you have not. Zahra's towns. That's what she calls them. Her towns. Shortly after Max was born, Zahra began to build. She has lined toys up in the past, but in the last few months, she has begun to create these elaborate and complex "towns."

While to the untrained eye, it may simply appear as a chaotic mess of toys, there really is an order to it, especially to Zahra. The picture above is a small example of a town, relatively speaking. Most of her towns can be much larger and complex, leaving the rest of us no room to walk or set anything down. At first, it drove me absolutely crazy because she wouldn't let me touch or move anything. Each little toy, lined up in its precise location, had a definite purpose. In the beginning, she would just build and build for the sake of building, as if driven by some voice telling her to do so. A little Mrs. Winchester. But lately, the towns seem to have taken on new meaning. They are the backdrop for her toys to play in, the setting for imaginative orchestrations, the towns for the little fairies to live in and thrive. It seems she builds them so that her toys have something to walk on, to swim in, to drive over, to hop on, to sleep in, whatever the case may be.

To maintain my own sanity, we've established a new rule in our house: no matter how much effort she puts into building the towns and how sacred they may be for most of the day, they must be broken down each night before bed. Each little toy has a home in one of the organizing bins. That way, each morning, we can walk down the stairs and begin each day with a clean living room. She can build over and over again, and she does... The day I first established the new rule, I thought I would meet some opposition, but I didn't. This was also the first day we had organized all her toys in the bins and had found a home for everything. I think she thought it was part of the whole process. New bins, new rules. I usually try to make a game out of it and see how quickly we can throw the toys in the bins.

I wonder what she thinks about as she builds. I wonder a lot about what goes on in her cute little head as she's creating these coordinated towns all over our living room floor. It took me awhile but I have begun to embrace the process, even if I still find it hard to navigate through the little city streets or can't find a place to lay her brother down for a few minutes on a blanket. The process itself is important for her and I have come to just let things be.