My imaginary friend

When I was a little girl, maybe 3 or 4, I had an imaginary friend. His name was Zeke and his dad was Pete Rose. I think I remember that he died by falling off a trampoline, but that seems really morbid. Do any of my family members have any memories of this??

Now that I've confessed, please don't think that I am a total weirdo. When my husband makes fun of me about this little part of my childhood, I tell him that having an imaginary friend is really a sign of extraordinary intelligence. I have no scientific data to back that up, but it makes me feel better to think it might be true.

I have no recollection of where he came from, or why I invented him, or why he disappeared. It's not like I was short on playmates; I played with my older sister Heather (pestered her is more like it), and my brother Chris would have been a baby at the time. I went to preschool and was in the church nursery from birth. I had the great fortune of growing up in the same city as most of my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins and saw them all often. But for some reason I invented a friend that did not exist. It seems very strange to me even now as I type. Does anyone have any insight to make me feel like I'm not a total freak??

I do have vague memories of talking to Zeke. Which is what led me to this post: Eliza talks to herself. Quite often. Usually when she's working on something alone while I'm doing stuff around the house, like when she's busy coloring, or doing a workbook page, or practicing writing her letters. Not when she's playing with dolls or ponies, like I would expect. What cracks me up is that sometimes she talks to herself like I talk to her:
"What's this letter? H? Yes--good job!"
"First, we are going to go upstairs. Then we are going to go potty. Then we will read books and go to bed."

Or, "Mommy says I have to clean up my playroom."

At first I thought she had obviously inherited my tendancy toward imaginary friends, i.e. extraordinary intelligence. So one day I nonchalantly asked her who she was talking to. She just said, "Myself." Well, I still think she is extraordinarily intelligent :)

Here is a little video I took of her today by holding the camera out while I stood behind a wall, because if she knew I had a camera and was watching, she would have stopped immediately and started doing her "cool gymnastic moves" for the camera instead. She's not talking to herself here, but singing. She does that often too; just her own little made-up songs. I have no idea what she is singing about here, but I do think it's pretty sweet.