The New World of Imagination

I have been wondering when kids begin to develop an imagination. I have been watching for signs of Emery playing "pretend." And recently I finally saw the first glimmers of it.
She was holding a small wooden zebra that comes from a Noah's Ark set of animals that my mom gave her last time we went to visit. And it was like for the very first time in her life she recognized it as the representation of an animal instead of an irregularly shaped object. She turned it the correct way, so its little zebra feet were facing down, and then she moved it across the couch, forward, the way a zebra might walk.
It was a small thing. The kind of thing only a mother would get excited about, or even notice. But it was exciting to me. And I know as her brain continues to develop she will open up into the world of "pretend" and imagination. And I love it!
It is so fun watching her grow and change. And she does it so unobtrusively, so unconsciously, that if you weren't paying attention, you might not even notice.