Last week we bought Jack two Star Wars action figures to play with. He is getting more and more into creative play and has had a ton of fun making the guys "bam" each other. (Better the dolls then other kids in nursery right?). However, Jack soon learned that these dolls heads can pop off (arms, and legs too). He was playing in the back seat while we were running errands and I overheard him saying, "Ouch, now I'm an American." We have been working with him on the idea that we live in America, and that California is a state in America, as is Massachusetts and that Boston is a city in Massachusetts, so I was glad to hear that he got something out of all of this. He then held up his guy and said, "Look Mom, now he's Skywalker and now (popping off the guy's head) he's an American." I was horrified. Had we somehow taught our child that Americans don't have heads, or worse that Americans loose their heads???? For about a week he showed lots of different people his "American" guy and we tried to figure out where we had gone wrong in our explanations, explaining that I'm and American and I have a head, and Zack's an American and he has a head. Finally, last night while we were at the mall, Jack walked by a store and says, "Look, another American." It took just a minute to put it all together. Jack was pointing at a mannequin. He was trying to tell us that his guy looked like a mannequin without his head, not an American.
...and out goes the collective deep sigh of relief...
