Imaginary Friends... or Fiends?

When Oo was little-er, her first imaginary friend was Chewbacca. And what a friend he was—always amusing Oo and trying his best to help Oo get her way. (Side note: Oo first saw Chewbacca on an old episode of The Muppet Show starring characters from Star Wars.)

Now that T is of the age of imaginary friends—ack! I still can't believe he's three!—he too has welcomed some rather strange beings into his private inner circle. The first of these is Green Cookie, and then there are the Zoo-Zooms. Unlike Oo's friend Chewbacca, I have no idea from where these creatures came. However, I do know this: their first appearances were in T's nightmares.

After a night of fussing and crying in his sleep, T told me all about a green cookie that walks around the bedroom whenever T can't sleep. The cookie is very, very big, and it has no face—the lack of a face is what scared T the most. After a couple more Green Cookie nightmares, T told me that the cookie was sad because it had no face. And so, T says, he drew eyes, nose and a mouth on the cookie and then the cookie was happy. (Sounds like the little guy is a lucid dreamer like his mom.) I was very proud of him for coming up with his own solution to his fear.

From what I can gather, Green Cookie (who only visits in the middle of the night) and T are now friends, and T will tell me about how silly Green Cookie can be. But Green Cookie is not a friend that I would pick for my child (as if we can pick our children's friends), because sometimes Green Cookie will pay a visit without his face, try to break T's feet, or try to eat T. And then the 2:00am tears start flowing. Yeah, I know. Some friend!

Now, as for the Zoo-Zooms, they introduced themselves in a nightmare but they are around in the day too. T hasn't been able to describe to me what they look like, but I do know that they move around really fast and that they change color from red to blue (a fact that disturbs T a great deal). Sometimes T laughs about "the silly Zoo-Zooms" zipping around really fast, but for the most part they terrorize him. And unlike Green Cookie who never ventures out of T's bedroom, the Zoo-Zooms tend to lurk about the house, usually behind the TV.

Hopefully, T's imagination will cook up some new friends soon—some that are more fun and can kick a big cookie's butt.