The plastic yellow dump truck is Dorothy; a red matchbox car that Cam opened on his second birthday is the Scarecrow. For the wizard, we use Mr. Potato Head. The man behind the curtain is a Playmobil truck driver. Toto is represented by a chewed green straw that we picked up at Starbucks. I get to be Auntie Em this morning, and Cameron is playing both the roles of Tin Man and the Wicked Witch.
My favorite character is the Cowardly Lion: a wad of sheep's wool wrapped around a broken tongue depressor and secured with pipe cleaners. Cam and I made it last month at our farm-hosted playgroup. Every time I see it out of the corner of my eye, I wonder how on earth a handful of pubic hair has ended up on my coffee table.
"I Tin Man! I stuck!" Cam cries, beginning our game.
"You can't talk." I remind him. "Dorothy hasn't oiled your mouth yet."
Once he becomes unstuck, Cam likes to skip directly to the exciting part. He hands me Mr. Potato Head. "I am the Wizard!" I say in a deep, booming voice.
Now comes Cam's favorite plot twist: Pulling the Playmobil truck driver out from under a pillow, he gleefully announces "Tricked you! I not great big wizard! I just yittle guy!" The wizard's act of deceit and subsequent exposure delights Cam to no end. Sometimes we act out this scene dozens of times.
From here, the menagerie moves on to the castle of the Wicked Witch, who glares at the dump truck and remarks sternly "I no YIKE you, yittle girl!!!" The dump truck responds by tossing a bucket of water (a crayon; burnt sienna) at the Witch, who in turn screams "I melting! I melting! I melting!"
Flash forward to Kansas. The dump truck has been abandoned and the part of Dorothy is now being played by Cam, who flings himself into my arms. "I miss you, Auntie Em!" he cries in a high pitched squeak (his best "girl voice").
"I missed you too, Dorothy! I'm so glad you came back!" I say.
"Yesh. Now Auntie Em nurses Wizard." he says. He hands me Mr. Potato Head and eagerly waits for the feeding to commence.
"Sweetie," I say, breaking character, "Mommy doesn't really want to nurse Mr. Potato Head."
"Just pretend." he tells me.
Duh.
