Playing Dress Up

Sometimes I get the distinct feeling that I am just playing house, dressing up and in a world of make-believe. I don't always feel like a mature adult with a husband, two beautiful children, a perfect house (with an adult-sized mortgage), a minivan (read:Pretend SUV) and a sedan. I look at everything around me and think, this can't be real, it is too good to be real. I must be just playing house. Then I hear myself say things like "Little Man, you need to take off your kings crown before going pee-pee" or "No, shields and breastplates at the kitchen table, my little knight! Now let's eat breakfast" And I realize two things, I am an adult with this wonderful real like and it is my son that is playing house and dress up.

One moment he is a king and the next he is a knight. This morning he even put on my brother's baseball cap and said "I am Uncle Mark" then he slung my purse on his shoulder and said "I am Uncle Mark with a purse!" He will grab a briefcase and say he is Papa and is going to work or he puts a plastic bin on his head and says he is a ghost. (I know that doesn't make sense, but in Little Man's world it does). Sometimes he holds his hands in a point over his head and says he is a witch (the hands are supposed to be his pointed hat) or he puts on his cape and becomes SuperMan. He is a different character every hour and likes to be called by his character name. "Come and have lunch, Knight Little Man" or "Superman, let's clean up our toys". Then sometimes he just wants to be my little boy and says "I'm Littleman now, Mama. You say Little Man, come here now" And I do as I am told and he is happy. So this morning as I was trying to convince him that wearing his breastplate and shield into the bathroom was not the best idea I realized that I am not playing house. I am the mama and the wife. This is my house and my family and my life and it is as wonderful as it seems. My job now is to let my son be anyone and anything he wants to be. A knight, a doctor and even Uncle Mark.