A Case of Mistaken Identity

I never know who I am going to find when I wake my kids each morning.  Will it be Anna or Ariel?  Is Wish Bear making an appearance?  Perhaps evil Sid will greet me before spending the morning torturing his toys (and us).  Today I have called them by the following names (at their request of course): Wish Bear and Wish Star (Anna and Kara respectively), Batman (Jack), Baby Captain America (Kara), Baby Darth Vader (Anna), and Darth Vader (Jack).  At the moment, I am a Rebel.  Which means one of the kids occassionally pops in, asks if I am rebel and then runs off screaming to the others that they have found the rebels. 

On the one hand I love their imaginations.  On the other, I get tired of being corrected a thousand times a day with, "I'm NOT Jack, call me Batman."  Frequently, I become a part of their games.  We were outside today, I was pulling weeds and the kids were riding bikes.  Jack was Batman.  Anna was Wish Bear and Kara was her side-kick Wish Star.  Much to the girls dismay Jack refused to be roped into a Care Bears game.  Anna tried, "welcome to Care-A-Lot, Batman."  Jack's response, "Batman does not visit Care Bears."  I, however, had to juggle being Robin and the queen of Care-A-Lot.  Fortunately, the girls let Jack off the hook without much fuss.  It doesn't always go that way when someone refuses to participate in their world of make-believe.  A couple of days ago Kara let out a blood-curdling scream. Assuming she had fallen down the stairs or something equally terrible, I ran to her aid. When she calmed down enough to talk, I learned what happened: Anna had refused to call her Belle.

When Anna or Kara is Ariel they opt not to use their legs.  Thomas is a kinder parent, he will make them a mermaid tail out of a blanket.  I just step over them, trying to remember if I am Ursula, Flouder, or King Titon.

They have no legs and since Mommy refuses to carry them from room to room, they are left with no choice but to drag themselves about.

Last week Anna was Cinderella and I was the evil stepmother.  Every few minutes she would demand a new task.  I would tell her to go wash the windows or sweep the floors.  A minute later she would return and say it was done and I would give her a new task.  This went on for a while until I heard running water.  Apparently she had decided that I was not pretending when I told her to wash the bathroom floor.  She dumped a bucket of water on it.  After that, I was careful to distinguish between real and pretend tasks.  Pictured below are real tasks of wiping counters and helping with laundry.

  





Now, I am a stormtrooper, directing them in their hunt to find Princess Leia.  Kara just threw a pillow at me and told me it was her Captain America shield.  Never a dull moment.  But on the plus side there is no way I could have sat down a year ago to write a blog while they were awake.  Now, their imaginations allow them to have all kinds of fun together, often with limited parental involvment.  They are growing fast and I am enjoying seeing their imaginations blossom. 

I had started to keep notes of all the cutes things they are doing so I could write about it.  Unfortunately, I can't find my notebook.  It was probably the prop in one of their games. 

So, in limited other news, Jack and Anna have started soccer and Thomas is their coach.  I couldn't believe how cute they all were in their soccer gear.  They have only had one practice, so I'll have to keep you posted.  Kara is progressing with the potty training.  She kept her underwear dry all day yesterday.  Today hasn't gone as well, but we're getting there.  Anna got in trouble at dance last night, apparently she was "huffing and puffing" and had to sit against the mirror.  I am not 100% sure what that means but I think she was sighing heavily and repeatedly when she was frustrated.

It looks like the troops need me, so that will have to serve as catch-up for now.  Now, where are those rebel scum???