Billy & The Penguin

No. This is not the name of a children's book. But it sure seems like it, doesn't it? In all actuality, it's a post about imaginary friends. My kids are very creative and imaginative. I'm sure most kids who are five and almost four are. And I am definitely not one to stifle the power of the imagination. (Hi. I'm Jessica. And I'm an artist.) So when I begin to see the creativity the kiddos show, it never ceases to interest me. Putting Abby's crazy obsession with drawing aside, the biggest bout of creativity has to come from their minds. Two words: Imaginary friends. Yep. We're there. Now, in the past, Alex has had quite a few "imaginary friends". But most of them were short-lived at best. Our newest consistent house guest is a boy named Billy. I am prone to suspect that the origination of Billy comes from the introduction of The Power Rangers, as one of the rangers is named such. Alex started out by talking about Billy (his favorite power ranger) quite often. This went on for quite some time until slowly, Billy began to do things that were not even remotely close to what the Power Rangers do. Today, he talks of Billy as if he's always in the room with us. Creepy much? Just kidding. It's cute...in that uninvited, freaky invisible man in the room kind of way. He talks about Billy, plays games with him, eats his food with him. You know, the typical imaginary friend things. We were all there once upon a time. At dinner tonight, Alex was weaving quite the tale of the many adventures of Billy. Skydiving, karate, swimming with sharks, watching movies, driving monster trucks. Billy...that crazy kid. He's done it all! When I ask Alex how old Billy is, he ranges from 5 to 20. Perhaps Billy is stuck in a space-time continuum. Who knows? What I do know is that the stories that kid can come up with and the adventures they both go on, it's always a fascinating day at our house. I can also say that Billy's mom is a very lenient (and possibly crazy) woman. The only concern I have for Billy's apparent long stay is that I am not socializing Alex enough. But his preschool teacher has never mentioned anything. So for now, I'd say I'm in a safe zone. Oh well. Perhaps in my current book re-write, I'll do some tale weaving of my own and have Billy in there somewhere. Problem is...I don't know what he looks like.

So you're probably wondering right about now what the heck the Penguin has to do with this whole thing. Well, my friends, that is all Abby. She has developed her first of probably many imaginary friends. It will most likely be short-lived, but The Penguin has done a few things around here. The difference between Abby's friend and Alex's? The Penguin has a knack for getting into trouble. So far, this mysterious penguin has drawn on the walls, the stove and Josh's computer chair, unraveled quite a few rolls of toilet paper and sneaked in to eat the last of the grapes. As far as imaginary friends go, that's one Sneaky little penguin, if you ask me.