At Least I Know I Never Want Twins

Edison’s latest kick has been to pretend he is Peter. He announces that he is Peter, or Peter Baby, or Eddie-Peter, and he then proceeds to crawl around, to gesture at things while making inarticulate noises, and/or simply to hold things up for our inspection so we can tell him what it is. He finds this very entertaining. Melanie and I – not so much.

Today, I found Eddie’s latest form of entertainment particularly tiresome. Melanie teaches a Primary class at church, so Peter and Edison are left in my care for almost two hours. I find this challenging enough on its own right, but all the more so when every interaction I have with Peter must then be repeated with “Eddie-Peter.” If Peter points out something and I tell him what it is, then Eddie wants to point out the very same thing and have me tell him what it is. If Peter tries to put garbage in my mouth and I say “Yuck!” then Edison wants to pretend he is trying to put garbage in my mouth and have me say “Yuck!” If I hold Peter’s hands and help him walk around the room a little bit, then Eddie wants me to hold his hands while he pretends he can barely walk. Laborious!

I can just hear the psychologists out there insisting that Edison is pretending to be Peter because he is jealous of the attention Peter is getting at this stage of life. Perhaps that is part of it, but I’m not too worried about it. Eddie hasn’t started making big messes or acting completely incompetent, and he never seems sad or unhappy either when or right before he indulges in this type of play. What’s more, Edison has long been a fan of role-reversals, asking Melanie to be “Daddy,” insisting that he is “Mommy,” and telling me that I am “Eddie,” etc. So he mixes it up in every possible way you can imagine, and he wants us all to do it. But lately he’s been all too keen on being Peter, and I’m quite content with just one of those.

Anybody want a spare?