Meow meow mom is weird meow

Anonybabe has this toy cat named Francis, who she loves. I mean, Anonybabe lo-huh-huuuuves him. And Anonyhub and I have worked up a shtick of sorts with Francis, complete with Daniel-the-kitten-from-Mr.-Rogers'-land-of-make-believe voice ("meow meow Anonybabe meow; meow meow want some chicken meow"). He's kind of saucy and kind of a brat and I kind of use him to let the naughty side of me out around Anonybabe.

I'm all for Anonybabe having imaginary friends. I had all of these elaborate (or at least very real) personalities made up for my many dolls when I was a kid, so it only seems natural to work these little characters we've created around her for all they're worth.

But Anonybabe has been doing this thing lately, especially with her dolls, where she wants us to play them for her. Like, we'll make Francis say something and when we try to put him down she'll rather imperiously pick him up and put him back in our hands. She'll point to our hands like a ruler-bearing school marm, then when we offer one, she'll turn it in the direction she wants so she can place Francis in firmly. Even if she's interacting with him, she wants it to be through us so we're pulling the puppet strings.

It got a little meta today when I picked up Birthday Bear (he wears a little birthday hat and plays "happy birthday" when you squeeze him) after we'd been playing with Francis for a while. And Anonybabe grabs Birthday and grabs Francis and first puts Francis in my hands and then in the same bossy manner she shoves Birthday into Francis's hands! So here I am making Francis make Birthday take a nap (which Anonybabe loved; she even loosely mimicked snoring for the first time) and Anonybabe would giggle and then pickup Birthday and put him back in Francis's hands. When I would try to put Francis down and deal directly with Birthday, Anonybabe would grunt and point until I picked Francis back up and maneuvered Birthday through him.

What the hell? I feel like I've pulled Anonybabe deep into the world of my childhood and its kind of freaking me out. Not to mention it's kind of getting on my nerves being Francis all the time. There's a song I try to sing to Anonybabe before she naps and sleeps to kind of set the mood for slumber. She's never been that interested in it, but it seems to calm her (or bore her, whatever). But somehow Francis got roped into singing the song the other night and now she requests it (by raising her hand high above her head to point at the moon) constantly and repeatedly from him. I'm a little jealous of Francis for that.

Meow might need to set some boundaries with Francis meow.