Our kids' obsessions: enter the labeling phase!

Like many kids, Max's little obsessions come and go. His spaghetti and car wash fascination? So one year ago. His thing for purple, however, shows no signs of letting up although lately he's been saying he likes purple with black. Progress!

Last week, a new phase started. I came home from work to find our babysitter sporting a white piece of paper on her chest with her name painted on it. "What's up with that?" I asked. "Max wanted to do it!" she said. Max had gotten her to write out the name of everyone near and dear to him on a big piece of paper, then they cut all the names out. Together they taped "Mommy" on my chair at the table and "Daddy" on Dave's chair at the table.

Later on, Max decided that he wanted to put "Sabrina" on her backpack. Her response, and I quote: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"Sabrina, what's the big deal?" I asked.

"That's MY backpack!" she said.

"Honey, it'll still be your backpack, Max just feels like putting 'Sabrina' on it, so would you do that for him?" I asked.

"I'm NOT going to school with that on!" she said.

"No, of course not, we'll take it off later," I promised. And so she let him label her backpack.

This morning, as I was headed out the door to work, Max decided I needed "Mommy" on my chest.

"Max, I can't wear that to work!" I said.

"Eeeeyah!" he answered. ["Yeah!"]

I wasn't going to reason with him. So I left the house wearing "Mommy" on my chest, took the paper off and carefully placed it in my tote, then taped it on again when I walked back in the door at night. Perhaps I should have kept it on at the office, just to show them who's boss. That could work well at meetings, I think: "We're doing it because I'M THE MOM and I said so!"

My label would definitely come in handy should I have an identity crisis. Also, I am headed to the Blissdom blogger conference today and this could be a fabulous thing to wear instead of the name badges they hang out.

Meanwhile, I'm all for this phase. Unlike car washes, it won't cost us anything or require us to grovel with car wash attendants to let us go through a second time. Unlike spaghetti, I don't have to cook or ask waiters at restaurant to chop anything, stirring up all sorts of controversy in the process. I love that it's educational; Max is getting more and more curious about words and spelling.

Labeling stuff is also just plain fun, and I know it because I own one of those battery-operated label makers and I enjoy using it entirely too much. I keep it hidden in the back of a closet ever since Sabrina got her hands on it and mainly used it to print out labels that said "poopie."

What's your child obsessed with lately? Anything in your house need labeling? Because I know a kid who can help.