It’s true, and I have no pictures to share, because it was all imaginary, to pass the time. We were there for over an hour. I purposely kept my phone in my purse. Never once pulled it out, because I feel so conscious of the time I’m with Bean, and the moments I steal from him if he’s with me and I’m on my phone.

My mom shared the most amazing, and scary email with me this week, about Einstein’s prediction that technology would surpass our ability to connect as humans, and we would be a generation of idiots. (Let it be noted that upon further investigation, it cannot be proved that Einstein said this.) I’ve seen this quote before, and I see the world falling apart because of the falling down of human interaction. And I’ll be damned if that’s how my children remember their childhood. Sorry for the cussing and all. But Seriously.

First, to while away the time, we played thumb wars. Then double thumb wars, with my arms crossed, so I had a disadvantage. That boy beat me relentlessly. Then I tried the hand slapping game, but he was too darned quick, and it made too much noise.

That’s when I had to get creative.

Bean and I picked apples from imaginary trees, and placed them into buckets made of our arms. 

Then we peeled them, and cored them and sliced and diced them.

We made pie crust with each ingredient mixed in, and then the butter cut in with two forks, like you do, and then rolled out with a rolling-pin, then folded in half, and placed into the pie plate. He did all the hard work, I just explained (in whispers) what to do. He followed directions like a superstar, I tell you. He was totally ON his imaginary cooking game.

Then we filled the pie plate with our apple mixture, and rolled out the top, put it in place and scalloped the edges with our fingers and thumbs. (I did mention that the entire purpose of all these games was to keep our hands and heads busy, right?) Then it was time to cut out a design for the top. He suggested a motorcycle, because that is what he and his brother think about nonstop. So, with an imaginary knife, I had to do a cutout of a motorcycle on top of our imaginary Apple Pie. He was watching me too, so I couldn’t skimp on any of the detail. Oh. No.

Then we put it in the oven, and set the timer and waited.

Three seconds later, we needed a new activity. Since he had done that one so well, I thought Lasagna, being a multi-step dish, would be a fitting next project. We made up the sauce with lots of cutting and dicing, and then placed the big noodles in a pan, put the cheese filling on top, poured the lasagna sauce over it, and then sprinkled the shredded cheese. There were several layers and we put as much detail into each layer as we’d done for the first.

I think when we were done, we made another Apple Pie, just because.

At one point, we were playing darts with the clock, and keeping score. I was trying to double out on an 01 game by aiming for the edge rim. I used to play competitive darts, so I know these things.

I am happy to say that the entire time we were at the DMV, we were contained and happy. We were not fussing, or throwing tantrums, because we were totally engaged. When they finally called our number, we cheered, then we got to wait some more at the counter. We did a very intricate piano duet on the counter in Tom and Jerry style, moving our hands over and under one another, and switching sides and everything. It was a thing of beauty.

The whole time we were quiet and not bothering anyone. I was flabbergasted with how well-behaved we both were. We got there when the number was reading 105, and ours was 172. We took a mad chance to run across town and do our Costco shopping, and go through the drive-through at Taco Bell first, then run back, and still wait for an hour and fifteen minutes.

We had a delightful 75 minutes of free play!