Cowboy Dakota

Incase you haven't noticed, Dakota has been obsessed with guns lately. Again. he keeps switching obsessions from guns to dinosaurs, to the movie Cars, to octopuses, back to guns... He is also now obsessed with western movies - as long as they have lots of shooting scenes. His favorite at the moment is John's movie Big Jake (with John Wayne). He is always trying to act out the scenes, he really gets into it! One night though, he started wimpering in his sleep. I asked him what was wrong and he was like, "get my gun!". He's even dreaming about guns in his sleep! The other day, out of nowhere, he said "Mommy, are you Daddy's woman?" I'm guessing he got that from the movies...

Also, on the subject of Dakota... I just found out that he has been having a pretend/imaginary girlfriend. One day, not long after school started, he told me that he played with his girlfriend at school that day. I asked him what her name was and he said Emily. Well, I just started babysitting my cousin's kids - one of which is named Emily - and our friends just had a baby with the same name so I guess that's why he chose that name. I didn't think much of it though because Dakota has never really been a story teller.

One day when I picked him up from school, I asked him to point out his girlfriend for me to see. Of course it was the first little girl to walk by that he pointed to. This has been going on for about a month - him telling me that he played with Emily at school. "They" played blocks, dinosaurs, at recess.... Then another day I asked him to point her out to me again and yet again, he pointed to the first girl that walked by. I thought she looked different...Then Friday I picked up Dakota and his cousin Keegan from school (keegan is in his class). I asked Dakota if he played with Emily at school again and he said yes. Then Keegan said that they don't have an Emily in their class. I asked Dakota if Emily moved away or something (cuz I just couldn't believe he would make somebody completely up). He said yes. Then today on the way to school I asked him who he was going to play with, and he said Emily. I said "I thought Emily wasn't in your class anymore", and he said "Well, I have a NEW Emily now!"

So, once I took him into class, I asked his teacher if there ever was an Emily in his class and she said no. I am completely shocked - and also amused! I mean, a couple of weeks ago Dakota was telling me that he wanted Emily to be his girlfriend forever!!! So, my 5 year old has an imaginary girlfriend, ha ha...