Puppy Licks and Lemur Food

My nephew, Tristan, is a nut. If one took a look at the rest of my family, he or she would probably determine that Tristan fits right in with the rest of us, but sometimes, though I love him dearly, I think his nuttiness is a little extreme. For some reason, this four-year-old creative genius is almost never just a little boy. He is usually lost in some imaginary world of pretend where he is a dog. Or a cat. Or a saber-tooth tiger. Perhaps, someday he'll be a brilliant author. Perhaps, someday he'll be in a loony bin diagnosed with multiple personality disorder.

I know it's perfectly normal for kids to pretend to be something else, but he seriously takes it a little too far. It's hilarious. He most often pretends to be a dog--he gets so into his role that once (this is crazy), before my sister thankfully realized what he was going to do and stopped him, he almost suckled off a boxer named Jinx who had recently had puppies! EEEWWWW! I told you he was a nut. He insists that he be given water in a bowl so he can lap it up, and he plays with dog toys. He walks around on all fours and barks and growls. He licks people to say hello--at a cousin's graduation party the other day he sneaked up behind a woman whom he didn't even know and licked her!!! (Ewww! again) He's really very convincing.

Recently, Tristan has played the part of a lemur. At a dinner my family had a few weeks ago, Tristan was jumping around pretending to be a lemur monkey. The poor lemur kept getting into "ticks," which were clothespins that Tristan stuck all over himself then he would look for someone to pretend to be his "Mommy Lemur" and take all the ticks off. He had to have a mommy lemur--not a daddy lemur. He got into a few arguments with uncles that didn't want to pretend to be girls. My husband had an interesting experience with Tristan the Lemur. John was just sitting on the couch when the lemur came over and bit him on the arm. Surprised and a little irritated of course, John asked Tristan why he did that, and Tristan replied, "You're Lemur Food!"