Lion King

Sameer has bestowed the title of Lion King to his dad after watching the Circle of Life video. Rahul loves the title, of course. Sameer has enjoyed role-plays for a long time now. About two months ago, he started giving himself animal identities: rabbit, squirrel, sparrow, parrot, owl, pig, dog, anything that caught his fancy. The next logical step for him was to give both Rahul and I animal identities as well. But he hasn't yet grasped the fact that a baby lion will have a lioness as a mother. For him it could be a monkey, a parrot or any animal that he chooses. So one day he'll be a squirrel, another day a monkey, and for the last few days he has been a puppy. I also become a different animal or bird from time to time. However, Rahul is always Lion King. That does not change.

He'll also make up these stories, about his stuffed toys, giving them parents and friends. Interestingly, in his stories, his stuffed toys are much better behaved than Sameer himself. He has an Elmo toy. So yesterday he started telling me this story about Elmo and Big Bird, where Elmo's dad is a parrot. And he pointed out himself that Elmo did not talk rudely to his dad. Sameer had been talking rudely to Rahul, shouting at him "Go away," earlier that day. There have been other instances where he has mentioned how the other toys did not misbehave. Although till date, right from the time he was 18 or 19 months, his favorite role-play game is the 'sabziwala' (vegetable vendor) game. But that needs a separate post.