The Adventures of Ting-Ting

You know how I mentioned before that my 2-year-old had christened one of his rubber duckies “Ting-Ting”? Well, Ting-Ting has morphed into a full-fledged imaginary friend. He even came with us on vacation, much to the delight of our families. All the aunts and uncles got into the game, pretending to catch Ting-Ting, lose him (or her?), find him under their plates, etc.

Since Ting-Ting is invisible, we don’t know much about him. But based on how Miles pretends to carry him around in his palm, he’s quite small, yet rather heavy, since Miles sometimes requires help lifting him. Ting-Ting’s quick, too, prone to go flying out car windows in the blink of an eye. He always comes back, though.

Frankly, I find Ting-Ting a bit of a nuisance. He’s always underfoot or on the chair I’m about to sit on -- “Ting-Ting sit dere, Mommy!!” Sor-REE.

It’s pretty interesting, not to mention amusing, to watch a kid develop an imagination, though. It started with Miles shushing me when his stuffed animal was taking a nap. “Shhh! Doggie’s sleeping,” he’d whisper, covering his pooch with a blanket. Most of the time, I play along. Unless it gets annoying. Ting-Ting is getting annoying.

The whole vacation, people kept bringing him up, even when Miles had forgotten about him for an hour or two. “Where’s Ting-Ting?” they’d ask, smirking. Then we’d have to launch into a 20-minute pantomime about how Ting-Ting was crawling under someone’s shirt or taking a nap on the hammock. Enough, already, damn Ting-Ting!!

At least he doesn’t inflict bodily harm, though. I remember my friend E.M.’s son had an imaginary friend, Henry. “Henry’s allowed to kick his Mom,” Isaac would tell his own Mom. Apparently, Henry was also allowed to run amuck throughout the house, creating messes and staying up way past bedtime. Not exactly the kind of role model you want for your kid. Except how do you oust an imaginary friend?

And where did Miles come up with the name Ting-Ting, anyway? Is he a distant relation of Tintin, the French comic book character? (Which, incidentally, is largely how I learned French.) Did he derive from the British pop group, The Ting Tings? (Who are not half-bad, BTW, but not anyone I’d heard of before I started Googling “ting ting.”)

I guess we’ll never know just what lurks in the depths of a child’s budding imagination. If he’s going to stick around for a while, I wonder if I could convince Ting-Ting to do the dishes and fold the laundry?

SHOUT-OUT: A belated congrats to new moms L.V.C. and B.R., and their beautiful baby girls Sadie and Sarah!