Being Other

MonkeyBoy often pretends he is someone else - a horse, a puppy, a baby - as does Chickadee, although her fantasies are more elaborate. What I find interesting is that when he's being someone else, MonkeyBoy refers to his assumed character in the third person: "Mom, the puppy wants a snack. He's hungry." He only uses 'I' and 'me' when he's being himself. Chickadee used to do the same thing, and I cannot remember at what age she stopped. But there's obviously a conceptual leap they make at some point so that they stop thinking of that other character as a separate entity.