THE MAGIC MAN

Izzy is WAY in to pretending. He especially likes the "Abracadabra Game". Izzy pretends to wave a magic wand and ABRACADABRA! the magic happens.

Izzy's favorite right now is, "Abracadabra Mom, you have no mouth." This means for the next ten minutes, or until he gets bored, I cannot speak and can only use signing and gestures. Izzy giggles when he subtly sees an eyebrow raise or a shrug of the shoulders. He tries to trick you in to speaking.

Another favorite is, "Abracadabra Mom, you are a _____________(insert monster here)". At this point, I am to change in to a Vampire or Frankenstein and then chase him around the house. Just before Izzy is to be bitten or attacked he magically changes me back to Mom again.

I think that this is such a powerful game for him. In a world of a three-year old, Izzy has little choices that are satisfying to him. He has to be carted around on errands or take naps or eat icky food. Sure, I give options: "Would you like applesauce or yogurt with your sandwich?" or "Would you like to take a bath before or after dinner?" but for some reason, those options really don't offer him the kind of control Izzy would like. With the Abracadabra game, Izzy feels in control and powerful.

Yesterday, when I was driving around running errands with a tired boy in the back seat, I looked in my rear view mirror just in time to see Izzy whisper the words, "Abracadabra! You are not tired." Saying his mantra out loud helped him stay awake!

And my current favorite......"Abracadabra Mom! You will not get old and die."

**I had a really cute picture of Izzy to go with this post, but now they are telling me Blogger Beta is dead and I have to jump through a ton more hoops to post pictures. I'll fix that very soon....I hope.