Carla

A few weeks ago Fiona started introducing herself to us as "Carla." She's done things like this before, but always in a generic way -- she was a princess, or a pirate, or a mommy. Occasionally she might be one of her relatives, but this Carla thing didn't make any sense. Unless her Aunt Kathy has been sharing her extensive DVD collection during babysitting, I don't even know where she's heard the name Carla.

But Carla stayed around, becoming the name of choice for various dolls, stuffed animals, bath toys, et cetera. And this evening, I finally understood what's been going on:

My daughter has an imaginary friend.

When we got home this evening, I headed to the kitchen to throw dinner together. Fiona came running in carrying Chutes and Ladders asking if we could play (she just got the game when we were clearing out some leftover gifts we didn't give her last winter; she doesn't really understand the game, but she likes climbing up the ladders). I told her that I couldn't play right then, but if she wanted to play with the spinner and pieces by herself she could do that.

The next thing I knew, Fiona was sitting in the hall "playing" the game with (an unseen) Carla. They even got into a brief argument where Carla got frustrated over... something to do with her hair, I think; it's sometimes hard to keep track of arguments with imaginary friends.

You know, when I get into arguments with unseen people a man in a white coat adjusts my medication...