Alina the Imaginary Friend

Last year, Z had a classmate named Alina. This girl was special to Z and he asked me often to email her mommy and set up a play date. Well, I finally made this happen a few months before school ended. We went to a local coffee shop that also has a kids room (is that awesome or what?). Z spent the majority of the time, quietly sitting next to me, eating a snack, and peering at Alina through his long eyelashes. It was adorable, and the light bulb went off for me that this was a very special girl for Z.

Once school ended, Z started pretending that Alina was playing with him at home. A liked this, and started playing with Z and the imaginary Alina.

Fast forward a few months, and imaginary Alina is a staple in our home. The conversations below represent only a small amount of the Alina-based imagination that I hear on a regular basis:

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One day, while driving in the car, A all of a sudden tells Z, "I killed Alina and threw her out of the car."

Z calmly responds with "That's ok, I make him disappear right next to me. See. He right here." [Note: We're still working on the appropriate pronoun based on gender. Although, now that I think about it, since Alina is now an imaginary person, I suppose she could now be a he. Hmmm.]

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A current favorite theme is that Z likes to tell me that Alina is hitting me. I usually ask him to tell Alina to please stop because it's not nice, and I can hear him whispering over his shoulder a recitation of my request to his friend.

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When we were driving in the car a few weeks ago, we saw a man walking his dog on the sidewalk. That prompted the boys to pretend that Alina was walking on the side of the road, like the man. Then Z says "Oh no, Mommy hit Alina with the car. Poor Alina." and he and A laugh like banshees.

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[Note: this is not an Alina story, but rather another car-oriented story.]
There is a large hill that we drive up and down regularly as part of our weekly errands. One day, I didn't hit the light at the top of the hill, so we were driving at a slightly faster speed than usual when I hear the following:
Z: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 11. 17. 20 BLAST OFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A: Yeah, Mom's driving super fast. If we put wings on the car, I bet we could fly into out space.
Z: Yeah! Outer space. BLAST OFF!!!!!!!!!
[I apparently inherited my lead foot from my mom. :)]

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So, to end this Alina post, I have to share that I took Z to school today for his first day back. The real Alina is not going to his school this year, so I don't know if or when we'll see her again. However, I did have to tell his teacher that the imaginary Alina may also be in her classroom this year. This might be interesting.

One last comment about Z's first day of school: Last year, Z was beyond excited to be starting school. He was grinning ear to ear, and could barely contain his happiness. This morning, he told me that school was closed and he had to stay home. He also told me that he wants to be a baby and wear diapers (we're potty training, and he's doing fairly well, as long as I remind him when to go.). Then he said that Alina is staying home with me, and she doesn't get a backpack. After the thought of the backpack, his attitude changed, and he was ready to go to school.