Samantha is very into her friends, both real and imaginary, these days. Earlier today while we were having lunch together she asked me if Cole -- a little boy around her age who lives a couple of blocks away -- could come over. I explained that Cole and his family were on vacation in Florida, but that she could ask him over when he got back. She thought about that for a minute and said "Oh, okay. But when Cole gets back he doesn't get to go anywhere without Sammy." Now she's wandering around downstairs with a toy telephone having a long and involved conversation with Juli and Cory about her day -- Sam has been very attached to Cory ever since Robert and Juli and Rob and Cory stayed with us for a while when their house was being renovated.

On the imaginary friends front we have Gordon. Gordon is one of the engines from "Thomas The Tank Engine". How is it that every kid on the planet gets exposed to Thomas The Tank Engine even when his or her parents have never heard of it? And what's the appeal, anyway? The stories were all written by some English reverend and seem to be based on live in a British public school (which we'd call a private school). Like schoolboys, the trains are frequently jerks to each other. But all of the kids of around Sam's age are simply huge Thomas fans, and Sam is no exception. She's been talking to, and talking about, Gordon for the past few days. He comes everywhere with us, and she bosses him around and tells him to sit down, take a bath, and eat his green beans. Pretty funny kid.