Imagine That

“Dere’s monsters, Mommy,” Miles says to me one morning, sitting on my bed.

“Monsters? Where?”

“In my room.”

“Noooo, there are no monsters in your room!”

“I hear dem.” (This is said in a whisper.) “Hear da monsters, Mommy?”

This is either the opening of a creepy horror movie starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, or it’s evidence of my 2-year-old’s budding imagination. Where does he come up with this stuff? Did he hear another kid talking about monsters? Was there a monster theme on an episode of Blue’s Clues? Because I’m fairly certain I have never mentioned monsters to him.

I’m not too concerned, however, because he doesn’t seem scared by the concept. More matter-of-fact. Of course, not much scares my son, unlike other kids his age. There’s this little boy in his toddler gym class that had an absolute FIT one day because there was a dad there with a beard. The little boy only had to catch sight of Beard Guy to start wailing and clinging to his own (beardless) dad. In Beard Guy’s defense, he was not actually a scary, intimidating type guy, but more of a mild-mannered graduate student in philosophy type. But all that mattered to this poor little boy was the beard, and it was terrifying him. Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore and had to leave.

So, anyway, Miles has started to develop quite the vivid imagination. In the bath one night, he announced that his rubber duckie was named Ting-Ting. The next day, Ting-Ting was spotted driving the car next to us on the highway. Alrighty, then!

Miles also insists that those around him play along with his imaginary games. Once he spent a good 20 minutes running back and forth from the kitchen, preparing food for his dad and me. “You want lunch?” he’d ask, then run off to fetch imaginary sandwiches, drinks, cookies, pretzels, and whatever else he could think of. We, in turn, had to pretend to devour these tasty treats.

C. has gotten into the habit of telling Miles stories at bedtime. (Perhaps after the 12 billionth reading of Richard Scarry’s “Busy, Busy Town”?) He’ll ask Miles what he wants a story about. “Pigeons.” When C. claims he doesn’t know any pigeon stories, Miles settles for a tale about a farm. But I ask you –- where the heck did he come up with pigeons?? They’re not exactly plentiful in suburban Maryland.

But back to the monsters. More details have emerged. They’re black, and they like to bite people. (Naturally.) Apparently, they are visible during the day as well as night. They do not yet have names, but if Ting-Ting is any indication, they’re bound to be imaginative ones.

PIC O’ THE WEEK: Quintessential summer.

NEWS O' THE WEEK: The Jolie-Pitt twins have arrived at last!! So what do we think of the latest celebrity baby names, Vivienne Marcheline and Knox Leon? What about Sunday Rose and Levi?