As she grows

It really is amazing to me sometimes how much my little one has grown. I still can barely believe she is going to be three in just two months. Today we officially hit another milestone though. She has her first, well at least the first I know about, imaginary friend. A little cat that stays in the palm of her hand named Little One. she was too cute about the whole thing too. She was in the shower, well getting out of it and she had her hand closed so tight she had white knuckles. I didn't pay it any mind at first but when we got to her bedroom and tried to get her dressed and she still refused to open her hand I asked her why.

"Because Little one is in there mommy, I have to keep her covered."

"She can't come out for just a minute?"

"No she's very sad mommy, and she's very shy of you."

"Well why is she so sad baby?"

"Because her mommy went to work and she hasn't come back, but not you mommy you're here and so that makes her feel better."

So thinking that maybe it was a manifestation of her anxiety about Matt being gone at work a lot I assured her that daddy will always come home from work to see her.

"Well that's good mommy because I love daddy and Little one will miss him if he doesn't come home."

And then she went about her business getting dressed and cleaning up her room. It was just too adorable. After a few minutes she came out to the kitchen as I was coming out of the bathroom and proceeded to announce to me "Mommy! she's not shy anymore and she wants to see you." upon which she opened her hand, I reached down and pet the pretend cat in her palm and she simply giggled and ran off to the living room to play.

I know there are some people out there who think that the imaginary friends are dangerous happening because they let the child believe that they don't have to talk to real people. I however believe they are a wonderful tool in child development. After all when is the last time you remember sitting there and having a conversation with your imaginary friend. I remember I used to work out all kids of issues with mine. Being upset about moving or having to go to a new school, something my friends had done that hurt my feelings, etc. but regardless he/she was always a good thing.

Not to mention the other good things it means about development. Now I know she can use her imagination the play and do other young child activities. She has that creative mind that will most definitely come in handy in life. And above all it just shows a developmental milestone and I couldn't be more proud of my little girl. Though as I said before I still can't believe how fast she is getting so big.

By the way total side note, THANK GOODNESS FOR AUTO SAVE!! I was in the midst of writing, actually almost done all I hadn't written was the last little paragraph there and all the sudden my computer decided it was a good time to shut down and install updates. But thankfully the blog had auto saved so I didn't lose everything.