The Land of Make Believe

Have you ever seen the cartoon Max and Ruby? Have you ever wondered where in the heck their parents are? I have. Now I know...

All last week (and I'm suspecting it will happen again this week) Lizzy has been pretending to be Ruby and wanting Ben to be Max. For most of each day I was not allowed to call them by their given names, only Ruby and Max. I had to offer Ruby's best friends Louise and Rodger snacks and make way while they came over to practice their instruments together or sold lemonade or got ready for a rummage sale or - you get the picture. I was the Bunny Scout leader, the teacher, the neighbor and sometimes the mom. I listened to long narratives about their many adventures with Grandma, Louise and Rodger. Lizzy even had conversations on the phone with Louise - she sounded, amazingly, a lot like me when I talk on the phone. Hmmmmm.....Max and Ruby just had to run out in the sprinklers while Troy was doing yard work because bunnies don't swim. Ruby is a very capable young bunny. she puts on Max's shoes, fixes snacks for him, cleans up his room, teaches him how to do just about everything and basically makes a mom unnecessary. In the cartoon Ruby takes Max on the bus to buy new clothes and other excursions. It was a great disappointment to Lizzy that I would not let her take Ben out into the big world all by themselves.
I don't mind the cartoon, it is certainly not my favorite but Max and Ruby's parents are never around and it has always bugged me. Well, my new opinion is that her parents are off in some loony bin somewhere because the girl never stopped talking and she completely took over the house. She probably takes Max on the bus once a week to visit them because it is the right thing to do. :)Ruby putting on Max's shoesRuby informed me that she and Max had been to the doctor who had said they must keep these goggles on all day until they recovered from their sickness (?)

Ben did okay pretending with Lizzy. He didn't want to be Max though, he wanted to be Super Why!This has happened before. Sometimes Lizzy is a friend of hers or a different cartoon character. She is able to keep it up for days at a time. I have had to make a rule that out in public she must be Lizzy but in the house, well, lets just say, we live in an alternate reality than rest of the world.