Meet “the Emilys”

This post is probably long overdue, but I wanted to get it added here before I forgot again. I was reminded about this last week. I was driving Mikaela home from school, and I hear her in the back seat having a conversation - the kind that she has when she’s playing with her dolls. I asked her if she had any dolls with her in the car. She said no. I asked who she was talking to. She said, “Emily.”

From there, I learned that her foot was named Emily. Since she didn’t have any dolls with her, she was making up a story with her foot sitting in for the doll’s usual role. Then I asked her if her other foot had a name. She answered, “Emily.” That didn’t make much sense to me. So I asked her if it was confusing that both of her feet were named Emily. She responded quite matter-of-factly, “Nope, because they’re always in the same place.”