the Sweeties

Zuzu has imaginary daughters called the Sweeties. I don't remember when the Sweeties first turned up ... sometime last summer I think. I've never been able to tell how many of them there are, exactly, but probably Zuzu doesn't quite keep track herself. I've asked her how many Sweeties there are, but since numbers aren't really her thing yet, she doesn't like to answer. The Sweeties used to follow us around quite a bit and do the things we do. Often Anders and I would be about to sit next to Zuzu on the couch, and she'd cry out to us not to sit on her Sweeties! They would be required to hold Zuzu's hand when crossing the street, and she and I would help them over the curb. We would also buckle them into imaginary carseats. Then we began to hear less about the Sweeties, and I was sad to think Zuzu might be getting past the imaginary daughters stage. She even seemed to be trying to let go of them (similar to Lars and the Real Girl but less drastic), by telling me that the Sweeties didn't want to come out with us--it was too cold, or they just wanted to stay home and play. But the Sweeties haven't gone away; they just only seem to exist in the home environment now. The Sweeties are very good, kind, helpful, and obedient. In fact they seem to model the behavior that Zuzu herself is aspiring to. For instance, for a couple weeks we struggled to get Zuzu to eat her dinner. But Zuzu would tell us during this time that the Sweeties had eaten all of their dinner!