Logan is a boy.

Sometimes.

Other times he is Wolverine, a zombie, a kitty, a dog or a dinosaur. Some days he is a parrot and other days he wiggles on the ground every where becuase he is a snake.

The other day I tweeted that it *might* be time to curb back on how much we let Logan use his imagination, but never got to expand on the topic becuase my children contracted the plague.

Keep in mind, I am talking about the child who was a cat for a solid 18 MONTHS. He crawled everywhere, scratched us, bit us, licked us, swiped at us with his paws and only talked in cat. (He preceded every word with “meow”). For a year and a half. No breaks. Every.Single.Day, he was a cat.

On Sunday Logan went to a birthday party. It was “puppy” themed

There was a long table set up for all the kids with little bone shaped place mats and dog dishes for bowls.

“Why are there doggy eating supplies on that table?” Were the first words out of his mouth.

“Oh” said the mother “Because today, you are all going to be puppies.”

Mentally, I was going Oh Shit, Oh Shit, Oh SHIT, but outwardly, I just smiled, helped Logan off with his coat, and left.

Two of the activities the children did during the party was to make “collars” and Puppy Ear hats. Then they ate cake from dog bowls.

At precisely 4pm I arrived at the party to pick up my child. Who was no longer a child. There were 20 kids at the party, but I found Logan easily – he was the only child crawling on hands and knees barking, wearing both his collar and ears. Most of the other children had left their ears and collar at the table. VERY quickly I called to him and got him up and started putting his coat on. But I wasn’t quick enough. The mother stopped us and told Logan to come get his party favor – a CD filled with dog themed songs – and told me as he barked thank you – He has been acting like this – barking, crawling, the whole party. I smiled and used the Oh, you know how five year olds are, excuse.

I asked Logan, on the way to the car, if he had cake. He barked yes. I asked him what kind and he barked that there was both white and chocolate and he had chocolate. I asked him if he liked it. He barked yes, then added : I ate it like a puppy, but everyone else used a fork.

When Logan pretends, he goes whole hog. When he is a zombie, it’s not unusual for him to sneak up behind you and bite you on the head. When I try to yell at him for biting, his response is to hold his arms out and say Braiiiiins.

Every school day I have to remind Logan that he has to be a boy at school, only a boy, nothing else. And the days I forget? I get phone calls, or notes in his planner.

While part of me wants to stop his pretending, simply becuase he gets so involved with it, another part of me is loathe to do ANYTHING to squash his creative flow.
Advice?

∗ Posted by bluepaintred on 11.05.2009
∗ Uncategorized