Nate has been pretending to be other things for quite sometime.

Nate has been pretending to be other things for quite sometime.

Often the purpose appears to be to provide some sort of loophole, as opposed to being primarily for his own enjoyment. As an example, I can't count the number of times I've asked Nate to go upstairs to bed, went to walk up the stairs, only to hear, "I a worm", and turn around to see Nate wriggling around on the floor (well, he is complying... just at an infinitesimal pace). Also, conversations as follows (actual example from last weekend), "Nate, don't bump the potty." "Mouse bump the potty?" 'No, mice shouldn't bump the potty." "Rabbits bump the potty?" "No, Nate. No mice, rabbits, or anything you are pretending to be should bump the potty."

He's been known to be an excavator, spider, bird, rabbit, monkey, mailman, river (a.k.a. a bridge), baby, etcetera.

Lately he's taken to pretending to be things for extended periods of time. For example, the majority of last weekend he pretended to be a mouse. "Nate, would you like dessert?" "No, mouse wants dessert." I was having trouble figuring out the sudden interest in being a mouse, until I read one of his favourite stories again to him last night. He can recite good portions of it himself already, and it's called the "Big Red Barn". In it, all the animals on the farm play all day until night falls and they all go to bed, or so I believed. Last night I noticed the mice are a notable exception. As the book notes, they stay up and play all night under the moon. So much for being an inspirational children's bedtime book.