What's in a name?

Cody's favorite toy is a stuffed Big Bird doll. He named him Marcus Merriweather, and every couple of months, Marcus has a "garage sale" of Cody's things. Cody drags all his DVD's, clothes and folded bedding out, organizes them by category, prices them, then displays them on a folding table that I have to drag out from behind a million other things stacked against the wall in the garage. Cody places Marcus on a stool and then we open the garage door. Cody leaves, then comes walking in to signal the beginning of the event. It's an intense process to watch, as Cody haggles with Marcus about price (prices Cody himself set a half hour earlier) while simultaneously complimenting him on his wares. And in the end, all the things get put back. It's not like Bekka's "tent city" where she gets bored or distracted and just up and walks away from it, leaving sheets and blankets tied to the dining room chairs for me to deal with. No, no, not with Cody. The cleaning up in this pretend scenario is built in. Now that I think about it, most of Cody's pretend scenarios have to do with some sort of cleanup. There's "tornado", where he destroys his room, then comes in to help all his toys put their homes back in order, there's "life coach" where he'll come in and help his teddy Jacob Thurston turn his life around, and "maid" where he just plain cleans his room. He has to time all these right because he likes for them to all be wrapped up before 4PM so he can watch Oprah . He always makes it happen.