One year at Homearama, one house featured fancifully hand-painted furniture and a child’s room with hand-painted wall decorations. I thought at the time that it would be the ultimate indulgence to pay an artist to create such a room. In my son’s new house, the large second-floor bedroom which Corina and Felix will share has walls with different animals and plants in each corner and a cloud-filled sky above, created by a local artist. The room is big enough for two beds, an assortment of dressers, bookcases, and toy chests, adult and child-sized rocking chairs, and a large center area for playing with quiet toys and listening to stories and music. One day, Felix frolicked on the back of a huge stuffed lion, chattering away:

Felix: Grandma, I’m riding the lion!

Grandma: Are you riding in the jungle or climbing on the rocks?

Felix: Grandma, we’re not outside; we’re inside.

Grandma: But you’re using your imagination!

Felix: I don’t like to use my imagination!

But it is what he does all day, whether he calls it imagining or not, and this room will be part of his meaning-making for many years to come.