The Way We Play

About 50% of my conversations with Spike these days are dictated to me: "Momma, can you say...." and "I want you to say...." begin many of his sentences. And if we've played a game a certain way once, it has to be exactly the same way every time after that. It really drives me nuts, but I do as he asks as often as I can stand it and he doesn't give me too hard a time when I say no about the times when I just...can't....take it anymore!

Here are some of the pretend games that Izey and I play (or perhaps I should say, that Isaac tries to get me to play) on a regular basis:

"Ga ga ga ga!"

One game that I really try to avoid is the one where Isaac hides under a blanket and says, "Ga ga ga ga!" I'm supposed to say, "What's that noise?" or "Where is that noise coming from?" and then when he's quiet I'm supposed to say, "Hmm, must have gone away." Then he comes out and I'm supposed to be surprised that it was him. It gets REALLY OLD REALLY FAST.

Marching Band

Isaac gets an instrument or something that he pretends is an instrument and marches around me, usually while I'm in the kitchen. I'm supposed to say things like, "Look, Anders, here comes the marching band!" and "Look at their beautiful costumes!" and "What instrument is Isaac playing?" and "What song are they playing?" and "I love this song!"

Baby ___________

This is another one I try to avoid because it usually involve lots of whining. Isaac whines and says, "Can you say, 'What's wrong baby blue bird/piggy/pookie?'?" Oh my gosh, I can't tell you the number of times I hear that every day.

Mr. Cookie Baker

We checked out a book from the library called Mr. Cookie Baker which is really cute. It has recipes at the end for different kinds of cookies. Now Isaac dresses in his apron and oven mitt and uses play-doh to make "cookies." He bakes them in the oven and I have to pretend to burn myself on them when they first come out. Today we made tiny "finger print cookies."

Momma's favorite: Playing School

Isaac gets his back pack and together we load it up with paper, markers, glue, and whatever else he thinks he needs at school--like his favorite "Baby Happy Halloween Bear." Then I say goodbye to him, give him hugs and kisses, and he rides his bike around the dining room and into the sunroom where we set up his little table and chairs. He has to come through the Fisher Price doorway and then I greet him as his teacher. He says about 50 times, "I'm a student!" I make up "assignments" for him to do, like coloring shapes certain colors, drawing a line to match shapes on one side of the page to the other, recognizing and coloring letters, and then we usually draw a face together. I ask him what the face needs and he tells me. We've had several men with strawberry eyes, strawberry noses, and strawberry mouths. While he's coloring I have to say, "Look, children, Isaac is coloring his shapes blue," and stuff like that. Then he packs up his backpack and rides his bike home to show his parents his assignments.