I feel for the families of superheroes...

...because it sure can be confusing never knowing who's going to be living in your house from day to day.

All children love to pretend. But when you put three so close in age in the same house, it's hard to keep up with. Especially when their alter egos change in midstream. And especially when they expect you to keep up with each alter ego's likes, dislikes, fears and abilities.

Dora and Diego are the most frequent guests. Ava is Diego, and Anthony is Dora (hey, at least they're consistent). But then Brand New Baby becomes Baby Jaguar, and Puppy becomes Boots. Yesterday they sent me on a quest for milk, and I had to ask for clarification. I didn't know if Anthony/Dora and Ava/Diego wanted real milk or the animals wanted the bottles with the fake milk and juice in them. Both, as it turns out.

When Ava is Diego, she speaks of herself in the third person. But she can apparently change identities (and pronouns) mid-sentence. "Mommy, watch Diego! See, my learned this in school." And there are times when I'm quite certain I've been speaking to Diego all morning only to have her look at me like I've lost my mind and say, "My not Diego. My Ava!"

And then there are the times I come running at shrieks of "Mommy!" only to be looked at like an intruder and told, "You're not the mommy. Luke's the mommy." Great. Luke -- you take over changing diapers, wiping bottoms, and washing milk cups (give me a dirty diaper over a dirty milk cup any day). I'm going to Starbucks.