Day three - wish I were there

I could be talking about how much I wish I were in Vancouver with Beautiful wife, but that really goes without saying. Today was one of those dreary spitting rain generic mid-winter days, full of the knowledge that there's surely many more like this to come- grey, rain, cold, grey.
The real wish is that I could somehow get into the mind of Dear Alex, and tease out the threads of her amazing imagination. The free-association connections she makes and the other-worldly dimensions of her creativity alternately baffle, and inspire me. Even though Nanny J. returned today, I still spent a lot of time playing with and wondering at Dear Alex's playtime fun.
This morning started at the usual and merciful 8am, giving me time to actually be awake and aware at the good-morning-milk-coffee-diaper-change ritual. Dear Alex was dressed and ready to go for her ballet class, (picture 1 - yes, there's a tu-tu under that top) which unfortunately was called due to the fact the she was the only one that showed up - apparently there's something (conjunctivitis?) going around. So home she came, and spent the next hour or so chasing the cats around the house (picture 2 - under the table, in hot pursuit of Gracie). Somewhere along the line Dear Alex noticed te Ella-bella pie-eye didn't have a tail, so she decided to give her one - made from a sticker from a book that Grammy Bobbi gave her. It was fantastic to watch, and it's fortunate that neither of the cats are inclined to scratch. After Ella-bella pie-eye got tired of being chased while having stickers applied to her ass and departed the scene, Dear Alex decided that Gracie needed a new tail, so took up the chase with her - All of this accompianied by Alex repeating "here's a tail, here's a tail, here's a tail".
What prompted this, I have no idea, but it sure was fun to watch.
After tormenting the cats (in the nicest possible way), it was time to empty out the footstool, play all of the musical instruments contained therein - including something I've never heard before: A drum solo of the ABC song, complete from A to Z completely unprompted, uncoached, right down to the extended "meeeeee" at the end (picture 3 - banging atonally away). Nanny J was there, I have a witness.
Up next, (picture 4) Dear Alex Played 'Alex-in-the-box' for a while, talking to herself about "in here-out here up-down-out" Fun and all, but then it was naptime. To wrap this up, Dear Alex got a new friend today - a Thomas the Tank Engine to go with her 'trainshow', that she immediately fell in love with - inventing an elaborate stories involving the toy and conflating it with the few Thomas books she has, and other odd bits of things - when the thing came off the tracks she said "don't get sick Thomas, it's okay" (Picture 5 - Dear Alex comforting Thomas the Tank Engine) - then we made a tunnel for Thomas to sleep in, so as not to add yet another thing to her already over-crowded crib. We end (Picture 6 - Just before her hypothetical bedtime, expounding on her day) with Dear Alex, back in her box, talking about her day. I love this little girl, and I guess it's a tribute to BW that she's got such a fun, open sense of play that can take her from ballet to music to trains and tracks in a day - I'm sure we'll get to princess this and princess that eventually, but right now I'm rooting for the engineer.