At Least His Friends Aren't Imaginary Too

Patrick started playing a new game yesterday, one that I love. It's the "change diaper" or "take a bath" game. It started when he started asking for "change diaper." But he wouldn't lie down for me to change his diaper, so I let it go at the time. A few minutes later, he runs into the room with a diaper off the dresser (that I didn't know he could reach). He brought it to me along with his teddy bear and again told me to "change diaper."

So I put the diaper on the teddy bear, which he loved. We put the diaper on the bear and then took it back off over and over, with him proclaiming the diaper was yucky each time. Then it dawned on him that he needed to clean the yucky, so he appeared with the box of wipes that I also didn't think he could reach. I compromised with him and found him a paper towel to use instead, so we added wiping the bear's bottom to the routine.

A few minutes later, he showed up with an outfit of Nathan's that hadn't been hung up yet (I need more baby hangers...already). He insisted that it be put "back on," so dressing the bear became part of the routine as well. The outfit definitely fits Nathan better, but it works well enough on the bear to satisfy Patrick.
But changing the bear's diaper wasn't enough. He started insisting that we "take a bath." It didn't take me long to figure out that he didn't want a bath but wanted to bathe the bear instead. No way was I taking the bear into the bathroom to give him a pretend bath in the tub with the faucet that Patrick knows how to turn on. I found Nathan's little baby tub that he recently outgrew and gave him that to use to bathe the bear. I also found him a washcloth and his own bottle of "lo-shoo" (empty travel-sized bottle of baby soap) for him to use in his pretend play.
Since then, several of his stuffed animals have gotten baths, and he also pretends to bathe himself in the little tub. He got a real bath yesterday afternoon, and he was quite ready for it to end so that he could go back to pretending to bathe. Makes perfect sense, doesn't it?

**By the way, I've had to pause in writing this three times already to re-diaper and dress the bear. Oops, make that four as of now. Now why can't he learn to do that for himself?