Cady's Imaginary Friend

Cady's real life best friend is Emma. They are a month apart in age. Every week Cady and Emma spend time together because we do a swap with their mom and dad. One week Emma comes over for two hours and another week Cady goes over there for two hours. Well, when Emma is not around in physical form, she is around in spirit. Cady has an imaginary Emma for the times that she can't be with her friend. It first started at the store. Cady said that Emma was sitting in the grocery cart with her. Then it evolved into Emma being at home with us. Sometimes she watches cartoons with us, sometimes she is present at dinner time, she's been known to sleep with Cady at night and she is always present when we grocery shop.

There are spaces in the grocery cart that I can't place things because that is where Emma is at. Sometimes Emma needs to have dinner when we all eat together. We need to kiss Emma goodnight at bedtime and Emma will get her own blanket when we watch tv together. Last week at the store Cady started laughing. Rob and I look at each other as if to ask, "did you do something to make her laugh?" Cady informs us at that point, "Emma farted!!!!! chuckle chuckle" (in her loud voice of course because we are at the meat counter at the store). Niiiiiice.

I'm so glad that Cady is starting "school" next week. She understands that she will be going to a different school than her real friend Emma. To differentiate that in her own mind she tells me that she will be going to the orange school and Emma is going to a purple school. Okay. She is REALLY excited about going to school and can't get there quick enough. The day starts and ends with her asking about going to school. When we did tour the school, the first thing that Cady did when we walked into her new classroom was kicked off her crocs and sat herself at the table with all the other kids. When she started to steal froot loops from a future classmate (who in turn informed her 'we share in this class') I walked over to intervene. It was at that moment that Cady informed that that I could leave, "Mommy, go!" I think she is going to do just fine!