Imaginary Friends

My daughter has an imaginary friend, er... family member is more accurate, I suppose. It's been a while now, so I think he's here to stay for a bit. He is my daughter's son. He lived in her belly, which I attribute to the close friends and aunts that are currently pregnant. Here's what I know about him:

He was born in the winter. How do I know? She said, "Can you believe when he came out of my belly it was winter?" But he doesn't really understand the season. "He's always wondering where winter is, like, where is that coming from?"

When he was a baby he "always got the hiccups."

He lives in the woods. He used to live alone, but his sister, Lala, came to join him. She asked me one day, gesturing to the empty space next to her, "Have you met Apron's sister, Lala? She's really nice."

Recently, they (Apron and Lala) went to the jungle together to look at animals and they found a puppy and took it home with them.

When he's not a good listener, he gets sent to his room.

He likes to be around his mom. "He just is always trying to be with me, so..."

He calls her a lot. When she's on her "cell phone" (i.e. the non-functional flip phone I didn't get my husband to give up until 2014) she is usually saying something like, "Apron, I told you, stop calling me!" ...He's very needy.

Apron seems to take on a lot of my daughter's traits.

When I tell her to eat her vegetables at dinner she usually comes back with something like, "Apron just didn't like to eat his vegetables, too, so I told him he has to go to his room."

I have been told active imaginations are a good thing, but thought I'd confirm before I continued to endorse this "Apron" for my own entertainment. A short google search led me to a title that said, "Creative Children Who Build Imaginary Worlds May Well Be Geniuses." Enough said. I didn't even click on the link, I just began her early application to the Ivy League. A wooded world where a mama's boy and his sister go on safaris together and get a puppy? Genius.

The best part is she's started roping her (real) brother into it, too. He acknowledges them and participates in their group activities, so at least they're inclusive.

I've also come to realize my daughter is not the only one with imaginary friends. When one of my (real) friends came over for a play date, she said her daughter told her she was going to bring her dragons in with her.

"Maybe don't lead with that..." she said.

When she told me the story, after appropriate laughter, I said, "I'll see your imaginary dragons and raise you an imaginary son who lives in the woods."

Cheers to friends, real and imaginary.