He's been a lion since Sunday at least. His name is Tigs.

He does still talk, but less than before. He growls and demands raw meat. He smells me a lot.

I've been indulging this, explaining to people his new name, etc etc, but am getting tired of it. Do I carry on indulging him?

That sounds very sweet, but very wearing for you.
DS2 has phases of being a dog/bear, he is 2 so it doesn't last long and is endearing(I do hope it doesn't mean it will be a habit once he's older!).

do you give him raw meat? [intrigued]

aw, bless him. Could be worse, there have been threads here about children who have been far more difficult - think one was a cyberman?

Although YANBU to be a tad weary of all this by now...

Of course I give him raw meat. The same imaginary raw meat that DS1 have been giving him all along.

awww [disappointed]

He has eaten rare steak before, lots. I have fond memories, with both kids, of the sight of a baby (under a year, for sure) with bloody dripping down their chin from the meat they're chewing on.

If that helps?

Oh, it's clearly all your fault, then! You primed him at an early age - and lions are top carnivores.

DS is often a baby penguin, which involves crouching down and tucking himself between my calves. Bloody annoying when I'm trying to cook dinner. At least he's not persistant with it though, if I had to look after a baby penguin for 5 whole days I think I'd be sending him off to live in the zoo.

DD (3.5) is a dog. has been for a few weeks. It's wearing a bit thin now....

Tigs from the Shiny Show????? TBH he is so wimpy I dont think he could eat raw meat lol. Sounds like it is getting a bit worn out now, could you not tell him he is only allowed to be the lion in the house. Lions are not allowed to roam the streets.

LoL NQC he sounds adorable and v imaginative..
It can get very tiring though, ds2 was always someone/something else. It stopped about 6 months ago(6.5!)
The hardest was when he spent 5 months being a Pterydactal (sp). He squawked and flew everywhere. He'd had a really bad cold and I wanted him to take some mindex which of course, he said Pterydactals didn't take. I stuck a sticker on bottle and he decided it was going to make him turn into said dinosaur. He really believed it though! He checked for wings growing every day for weeks!

Tigs from the Shiney Show is a tiger surely, isn't he stripey?

Have you considered returning your ds2 to the wild NQC? He could practice his survival skills for the savannah by chasing and bringing down long-legged dogs, unless you happen to have gazelle and zebra roaming around your part of the East end.

DS#2 had a long phase of being a dog or a tiger. Wouldn't eat at table, used to run round on all fours, cocked his leg on things . It passed.

My DS1 is 3.5 and also a lion!
It mostly involves pouncing and climbing all over the sofa though. No raw meat involved so far.

ds1 used to be a tiger, lots of rahhing noises!

he's currently a doggie! i've taught him tricks, which he can do better than my real dog!

it's only annoying when were trying to leave nursery!

Ha Ha my dd is a chinese cat called hin shin. she is also mexikitty the mexican kitty who speaks portugese or a boy called hon.

I think its hilarious.

My son was a trex for almost two years and ran along with his two fingers pointing out in front of him. The roaring can grind you down.

MY DS was a cat from the age of 3 until the age of 4.5. He would lick himself clean, and eat and drink straight from the plate to his mouth if I let him.

He was also selectively mute for the whole time if we where out of the house, but he would miow to communicate with me. I could tell by the type of miow how distressed he was.

He has stopped now thank god!

Argh, you have my sympathy. I have a dog in my house, barks his reading book from school, woofs and whines for attention. It drives me mad, which is why he is a dog, I think. Teacher tells me that he and his bf are rats in school, not sure that that's not a bit... strange!!!

yes we have to crawl everywhere and say 'goodnight puppydog' etc.

Much sympathy, as my ds, who is 3.1, has become Dr Who.

We live in the Tardis, we see cybermen and daleks everywhere we go, and I have to run them over with my car when they are chasing us. I just wish I looked like Billie Piper!

hehe we have a lion here too! he is 2.6 and roars at us and comes and licks or fcheeks and says they are lion kisses and also if i would let him tries to eat directly off his plate cos lions dont use forks!! thay are funny

Oh, I'm relieved to see others are suffering.

I am trying to use his lionness as a way around his annoying dog-phobia, at least.

As a lion, DS2 likes to:
- stroke and nuzzle and cuddle me lots (this is fine!)
- smell me lots (not so keen)
- growl a lot
- talk much less
- run lots (this is fine - he ran from Canary Wharf to ours, bran! Completely bloody mad!)
- smell trees, whatever

DS2 has always been much less talkative than DS1, but I think I would find selective mutism hard. He does still talk, as Tigs, but less than usual.

You want noise? Try having a helicopter for a son. When he's not a helicopter, he's mostly an ostrich.

Where does he stick his head when he's an ostrich?

(DS1 never went in for being other things, not like this ...)

LOL. We had to remove the sandpit on account of ds2 eating most of it, so being an ostrich mostly involves running rather than being in denial.

at your ds2 running all that way. I just did a rough measurement on Google Earth and it's just over 2 miles.

I've been thinking about walking ds to school instead of taking the bus, it's 1.55 miles. But I'm putting it off because ds walks so slowly that we would have to allow nearly an hour to do it (it takes me just under 30 mins leisurely walking), and he whinges non-stop.

Yes, I was quite . He kept growling all the way home, which sounded like something wrong with his lungs.

We had spent all day on the bikes, DS1 rode out to City Airport and back, and on the way home, DS2 had his mad running fit.

Does your DS ride a scooter or wooden bike? DS2 has no problem doing that sort of distance, and he's pretty fast these days.

He has a wooden bike, and he can go quite a long way on it, but there's nowhere to store it at school. If I get myself organised with a bike lock I might do that. He's still not very quick though as he keeps stopping to look at things or ask a question, unless we are with another child in which case he races along.

I used to avoid going long distances with the wooden bike as he would usually decide that he wanted to walk instead so I would end up carrying the damn thing.

The bike is less work for him, though. Are you sure there's no storage room at school? Nowhere to put buggies etc?

I was a horse for several years when I was a child.My Mum was very patient

They have a very small space under the stairs for buggies and scooters, but bikes have to be locked to the bike rack outside. I might buy him one of those 3-wheeled scooters and try him on that.

Can I hijack your thread please and ask you about buying a bike for ds for his birthday? I'm thinking of getting an Islabike, do you have any experience of them?

I know people with their bikes, they're very good, I'm told.

Oh arse, not only is DS2 sniffing everyone, two other children at the co-op have turned into animals - one is a wolf and one is a dog.

I tried to convince the nursery manager to not tell the parents whose fault this was ...

<snigger> I feel lucky that we only have an outbreak of scarlet fever at ds's school, and not a wild animal psychosis outbreak.

And today he apparently didn't talk at all in nursery, as he was so in character.

He's been talking this evening, at least. But not generally to anyone other than me or DS1.