Adventures with Pinky

It's a good thing I just watched "Lars and the Real Girl". Pinky, Lauren's imaginary friend, is staying with us. We were getting ready for bed, and when other stall tactics didn't work ("Mama, I'm HUNGRY and I need FOOD in my hungry tummy!" which gets me every time because what mother wants their child to go to bed hungry?) she made an appearance. We had to go downstairs to open the front door because Pinky was waiting outside and she was getting cold.

According to Lauren, Pinky "looks like me a little bit, she has eyes just like me but she has stwaight haiw". "And she is very tiny, and sometimes she talks, but not a lot, just a little bit. And I can understand her but you can't."

Now when we eat, we have to also set a place for Pinky, and give her imaginary food, or sometimes second helpings of Lauren's favorite foods, which Pinky will then "share". And we have to leave a little room for her on the couch, but not a lot of room because she's not very big.

Sometimes Pinky also has a brother named either Leeky or Geeky and Lauren will ask me to babysit for Pinky's brother while she plays with Pinky. Pinky likes the color pink a lot. When we were at Ikea, Lauren saw a bubble gum pink dresser that "Pinky would like that a lot!" but not Lauren because "that's not my style. This red one is more my style."

I have been trying to think of how best to leverage the Pinky situation to my advantage, and if used sparingly, I can invoke the "Pinky prefers" tact. For example, we should all good to bed right now because Pinky is tired.