Michael

"I'm going inside, I need to make you girls some dinner. Are you staying out here, Sarah?" I asked the other afternoon after we'd arrived home from work and daycare. "Yeah, I'm going to stay outside with Michael." Michael? She turned to chat with Micheal, forgetting me. Well, whaddayaknow.

After dinner Kate and Sarah retired to the TV room for some Goofy cartoons. "I want Michael to come inside." Sarah said to me. I opened the door and called outside. "Miiiiiiichael! Time to come in with Sarah." I held the door, watching Sarah so I'd know when Michael was safely inside. She gave me an almost imperceptible nod and I closed the door and walked out of the room, leaving the 3 of them with their cartoons.

Today as I picked the girls up from daycare Sarah said to me "Michael isn't here, he went home already." I zipped up her jacket (freakin' freezing out today, it snowed!) "Where does Michael live?" I asked her. She rolled her eyes "at his house!" How could I be so obtuse? "I see, " I said "well, I thought he might live at our house. I mean, he's there a lot." She shook her head "No no, he doesn't like Rex and Lola." Who wouldn't like Rex and Lola? I started to wonder about letting her hang out with this Michael character. Of course, he may be very tiny and if that's the case, Rex and Lola could really terrify him with their incessant rough-housing. Kate fluttered past me, piling on scarf, hat, mittens, sweater and coat like Heidi in the fields. "Michael is her imaginary friend." She said it like one might say "Mary is my cousin's wife."

When we got home, sporting her first ever pigtails*, Sarah made a smoothie in her blender for Michael. He wasn't there, so I had to drink it. As you might notice, it was made of an entire ear of corn on the cob (with pat of butter) and a Tinkerbell lip gloss compact. Delicious.
* I tried to get a rear view of the adorable hair style here, but mostly what you can see is that she's only wearing one shoe. She left the other one in the car.