Imaginary Friends

Today, Little Bit and I met my mom and Smiley at Chick-fil-a. Smiley had spent a couple of nights with Cappie, so she was happy as a lark. When she gets really excited like that, she gets a little too exuberant with her emotions. She kept picking up Little Bit and hugging her and swinging her around. And, I kept telling her to put Little Bit down and leave her alone (a common instruction around our house!).

After eating breakfast, Cappie and I looked over and saw Smiley mauling Little Bit. I thought, "There she goes again!" But, she continued to hunch over our youngest, reaching and grabbing at something. I finally jumped up to intervene.

I tore into the playroom and asked Smiley, "What in the world are you doing?"

She dramatically explained, "The puppies were asleep and Little Bit got them all up. I'm trying to get them back."

I looked around and asked the obvious question, "What puppies?"

Smiley seriously stated, "The ones who were asleep in the Sneaker Keeper there."

"Oh," I think, "they must be pretending here...or I'm losing a few marbles."

At that moment, Little Bit went streaking out of the play area with her dress caught up, carrying all the "puppies." She WAS taking them away from Smiley!

The humorous part was how serious they were about all this. And, even more so when you think...this is a 3 year old (no big deal!) and a 7 year old (huh?!?!) with their imaginary pups. Hmmm...

Little Bit walked up to Cappie and gently laid the sleeping puppies on Cappie's lap for a nap. She whispered, "There are twenty..." and held up 5 fingers. 25 puppies all in one lap? That IS interesting!

Little Bit got a drink and carefully retrieved her puppies from Cappie's lap. She headed to the door to re-enter the play yard, but she was unwilling to let go of her dress being held high with one hand to keep the puppies safe (luckily there weren't many people there to view her watermelon panties!). She juggled back and forth but really needed both hands to open the door. She didn't want to drop a single pup! I got up to help out with the door, while she shushed me and told me to keep quiet. Okay...

Pretty soon, Little Bit came back out of the door for another sip of Dr. Pepper (bad, I know...), and she was holding her stomach while she pushed the door open. Then, she promptly lifted her dress all the way up and started putting her hands in her panties!

"What are you doing?", I dared to ask.

"I'm getting my puppies out of my panties!", she informed me.

Obviously, to circumvent the door issue, she decided to tuck her 25 imaginary puppies into her pouch (like a kangaroo) for a safe ride to the table. She had no pockets so what's a girl to do?

At one point, Smiley demanded the return of her puppies. My mom and I laughed and laughed. It seemed to us that if one could create 25 puppies in her imagination, then why in the world couldn't she create more when her little sister confiscated the original ones??

Who knows...I hear an active imagination is healthy???

Cindy and crew