Well, I assume that is how you spell their names anyway. They are, maybe were, the Captain's imaginary friends. They appeared in our lives just before Nicholas turned two. Actually for a long time it was only Pup and then I think Dink joined the family around the time the baby was born (Nicholas was two and nine months at the time). Pup clearly had no intention of being ousted by the arrival of a new sibling and thus needed to produce one of his own. Although, I don't think that they were actually brothers. Once as we were in the middle of crossing a busy road the Captain announced to me that Pup was from Southall in England and that Dink was also from Southall, but that they were born in different houses. Where Nicholas could have got the name Southall from is completely beyond me. Apart from this rather cryptic comment about their origins I really know very little about them. The only thing that Nicholas consistently said about Pup and Dink is that they were older than he was.
Their presence in our lives will not really be missed. I got very sick of buckling Pup into the middle of the backseat of the car (in between Captain and Baby's car seats) and laying a place at the table for him. Interestingly, Nic never complained that I didn't actually put food on the plate for him. Most embarassing (but equally as amusing) were outings to the playground. Nicholas would insist that he and Pup go on the swings together, so I would buckle Nicholas into his swing and then he would demand that I also buckle Pup into the swing next to his (yes, we had to wait for 2 swings to be empty next to each other). I would then have to stand and push both swings until invariably a child would appear wanting to use the apparently empty swing. I would then have to inform the imaginary Pup that it was time to stop swinging as someone else wanted a turn. All of this bizarre ritual carefully observed by Nicholas's beady little watchful eyes and the bemused eyes of other parents at the park.
Dink played a minor role and only appeared when necessary, if the game required extra particpants or if Nicholas needed to get rid of Pup temporarily. Particularly if Nicholas was confronted with the inevitable "why can't I see him?" he would conveniently send Pup off somewhere with Dink or else say that he had gone on holidays.
Pup really was a very good friend to Nicholas. He would generously take responsibility for any injuries suffered by the little one (if I knew how to insert a rolling eyes gif there would be one here!) He was a willing participant in all sorts of games devised by Nicholas and his parents let him do whatever he liked. Nicholas did try the old "but Pup is allowed to" and then when that failed to work upgraded to just doing whatever it was he wanted to. He then would whine as he was being dragged to yet another time out that Pup's mummy had said it was fine to colour in H's face with permanent marker, paint the (neighbours) dogs tail etc, etc. It was around the start of this behaviour that we stopped humouring Nicholas so much and started ignoring Pup and Dink and now it seems that they have moved on. I just asked the now 4 year old Nicholas where Pup and Dink are and he stopped eating lunch to thoughtfully tell me that they were imaginary people, but then quickly added, they are on holidays at Manly Beach (that was with a cheeky grin the little monkey!)
