Boys play strange games. At least they are strange to me. The games my son has been playing with his uncles, and his dad, usually involve cutting things off. They use lengths of foam as swords, or light sabers, and beat on each other and then narrate the amount of damage they are doing to the other person. One will cut off the others leg and declare them self the winner but the other will counter by cutting off his opponent’s head, to which the other will reply with disembowelment, and it goes on and on.
They have also introduced him to a variation of “I got your nose” that involves removing any body part and pretending that you can’t walk because uncle A has your legs, eyes, whatever. The Boy has been playing this game with the Girl and sometimes she gets really worried because she can’t tell that it’s just pretend. One night I put her to bed and she said to me in a little worried voice, “Boy take my nose.”
I helped her to feel her nose and realize that it was still there, and then she needed the same reassurance about her mouth, and her ears, and her leg, and her arm, and her eyes before she could relax and go to sleep.
So one day a couple of weeks ago the GH pretended to take the Boy’s nose from his face. In the silliness that followed he pretended to eat it. The Boy’s response was to cut open his daddy’s stomach, retrieve his nose and put it back on his face.