Allergic to tires

My daughter has a wonderfully vivid imagination. Some of her stories take on a personality of their own, becoming real to those she tells. She can be so convincing. Take for instance the story of her brother.

When we moved into our house 2 summers ago, she told the neighbor kids that she had a brother. No one ever saw this brother, but she would tell them endless stories of how he torments her, how she has to protect him sometimes, and other believable antics, likes/dislikes, and so forth. 'My brother loves Star Wars, too!'. In listening to her, not knowing her, you'd think she was telling the truth. Of course, the kids asked where this brother was and Darian would immediately change the subject. Then one day the neighbor kids asked their mother, if Darian has a brother, why don't we ever see him? Poor mother, not knowing her new neighbor hardly at all, had to explain to her kids that every family is different and it is possible that the new neighbor's parents may have been married before and one of them has a child that only lives with them part time. Or that the brother is just so horrid that they keep him locked in the basement most days. That's maybe why it's hard for her to talk about his actual existence with them.

Imagine how awkward my neighbor felt when she, after *months* of being told by my daughter that she has a brother, but only ever sees one child roaming the yard of Monkey Hill, asks me about my son, or step-son, or other child that is related to mine. And imagine how I felt in telling her that I have no idea what she is talking about, my daughter made up this 'brother', and we only have 1 kid! I finally got to learn about all the drama that goes through my child's head, not like I was ignorant to it all, but still. Good lord, what an imagination this daughter has.

We have a couple of cats that we adopted from the same litter a few months after we moved into our house. My daughter is a definite cat lover- sometimes even thinks she is a cat. I spent a whole summer only hearing her speak 'Kitty', listening attentively to which meows meant 'food' and which meant 'cuddle'. Her favorite pieces of clothing are her cat collar and her Cats (original broadway musical) t-shirt, and some of her favorite songs are from the hit musical in addition to the Cure's 'Love Cats'. Recently, she has announced that she can talk to cats and knows exactly what they are saying. She feels she is the female 8 year old version of Dr. Doolittle.

The other day while riding in the car, she was talking to her friend- a real one, mind you- about our orange cat, Griffin. She said that he finally told her all about his childhood (what a relief!) about how he lived on a farm and his mother work really hard to birth him, but the farmer had to sell his dad. His sister, who was allergic to tires- the rubber made her heart stop- was attacked by a crow who ended up killing her. Griffin had no sister, then Katleen, the pet rescue person we adopted him from, came to his rescue. And that is basically the story of Griffin's childhood. When he was only 2 months old. Here we thought he and his brother Martini came from an abandoned litter here in the city.

Is a tire allergy real, or just vivid imagination? And where was her brother in all of this?

I absolutely love that my child has this creative side. She has countless journals filled with stories that she has written- mainly comic drawings. The weeks this summer when she has not been in drama class, she has spent working on a comic book with a buddy. At night, when she asks me to read her a story, I often turn the tables requesting her to tell me one of her own stories. The child cracks. Me. Up.

Allergic to tires!