I have recently rediscovered that children are quite maleable and unpredictable. Pretend this is a "how-to" if you like. That is supposed to be the topic after all.
This morning I was playing with my nephew. He's fairly young, being a toddler and all. One of the games he likes to play is that there is a shark that goes around biting people. The people don't like this, so they hire bodyguards/bountyhunters to stop the shark. The bounty hunters are a lizard and a crocodile. Everyone involved is quite menacing since they are soft cuddly beanie babies.
Anyway, to trap the shark, the lizard and the crocodile jump on top of the shark. I thought it would be good if my nephew put him into a prison so I told him to go get a prison. He didn't understand why that would be a good idea. I explained to him that the bounty hunters couldn't just sit on the shark all day. They needed to go pee and eat sometime too. Next thing you know, he's up looking for a prison and wondering where the bathroom is so that the bountyhunters can use it. "They need to pee", as he says. Laughing to myself, I tell him where the bathroom is. The bountyhunters go there. "Where's potty?" he asks. At this, I"m a little stunned. Recovering, I tell him it's the playmobile canoe. The lizard directly sits on the canoe and proceeds to go pee for a minute. "Pssssss", says my nephew. "Pssss pssss psssss". Then it's the crocodile. He doesn't need to go pee quite as much. He only pees for 15 seconds. When both were done, I asked my nephew if they were going to wash their hands. He just wanted to know where and off they went to wash their hands. Then they played cards and the shark escaped.
What I learned from this is that children have no problem playing things that are normal to them. They can go potty, so therefore their toys can go potty.