To prove their love and devotion, my kids will often let me sleep with stuffed animals carefully chosen from among their vast stores.
It’s a little like paying tribute but without the volcano. One daughter will even hold out the proffered gift, head bowed, and back away, still bent at the waist, arms out. She’s a silly one. I don’t know where she gets it.
Lately the girls have been on a rabbit kick, so the space between Husband’s and my pillows has become filled with Thumper, Hopper, Flopper, and friends.
Husband said, “Why do there seem to be more animals here instead of less?”
I pointed out the obvious. “They’re rabbits, honey. Multiplying is what they do.”
Plus, I seem to be forgetting to give the animals back.
Here’s a related excerpt from Be a Happier Parent or Laugh Trying:
My children have approximately 3.7 million stuffed animals. On my birthday I was presented with coupons to sleep with this or that animal for one, maybe even two(!) weeks. Before I had Baby Joe as my 6 a.m. alarm clock, I would occasionally (read: daily) wake up after my girls. When I’d hear them coming to get me, I’d grab whatever chosen animal I was loaned at the time and snuggle it under my arm like it had been there all night. Their squeals of delight earned me major bonus points.
I’m also pleased to announce that my book is available at Target.com. Who knew?!
Do you have any fond memories involving stuffed animals? I admit that a few of my childhood furry friends have remained with me into adulthood. They are especially cherished by my girls.
Funny stuff. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, VP. You clearly have exquisite taste.
LikeLike
I was a deprived child. I only had one stuffed animal, Teddy, the teddy bear. I never parted with him at bed time. Sadly Teddy ran away from home when I was ten and I’ve not seen him since (at least that’s what mother said).
So while I didn’t have a stuffed animal to share with my parents, I did have a Tony the Tiger spoon that I would often let my father use at dinner time (at breakfast, the spoon was mine).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Did you keep the spoon, at least?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I kept the spoon for many decades – until it had been washed so many times that you could barely see Tony the Tigger anymore. Sadly, the spoon just got so old that it eventually broke in a dish of ice cream. It had a long and useful life and is now buried in the garden, under a rose bush.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A proper end, for sure. And what better way to go than in ice cream!
BTW, you safe up there, Andrew?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yup, we’re safe up here. Well away from the fire areas.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Excellent.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Also, I wonder where Teddy ran off to. How could he?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Father thought he ran away to join the circus. I always doubt that. I mean it’s not like he was a talking bear or anything.
LikeLiked by 2 people
That is so sweet and funny
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Beth. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: It’s simple mathematics, really. — parentingisfunny – Sally's Blog
Your kids are THE best. How wonderful they want their animals to be with you.
I have no great stuffed animal stories other than there were thousands of them in our lifetime. What’s not to love about an army of stuffed softness to watch over your kids and cushion their toddling hind ends as they learn to walk?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Stuffed animals are truly multi-purpose fluff machines, CM. 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
They truly are. And I do have the believe behind the Toy STory idea of it all. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes! Recently watched the 4th movie. It was very well done, I thought.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Me too!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Second daughter, non-teen, went off the path during our afternoon walk, so she should crunch through a giant pile of leaves. 🙂
LikeLike
THAT makes me very happy 🙂
LikeLike
It made me happy too. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
First, congrats on having your book at Target.com! Woo-hoo!
Heh, stuffed animals. My daughter has more stuffed animals than books–wait, no, pretty sure she has more books. I think. Never had the kids tuck stuffed animals in our bed, though. My daughter would have a whole pile of them on her bed all the time, even when sleeping. Growing up I first had a stuffed Winnie the Pooh with a windup music box in it that played the Winnie-the-Pooh theme song (you know, Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh, chubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff…). Then somewhere along the way Pooh lost his little red shirt, and I wound up with (stole??) a teddy bear from my sister when she was too little to know she even had it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m going to have that Winnie the Pooh song in my head all day now. 😉
I love how it’s the fellow writers on here who are commenting on the Target thing. Such a great sisterhood to understand/share in that delight. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi. Don’t forget to feed the rabbits. They like carrots, I think.
Neil Scheinin
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha. Yep, I’ll keep a steady supply of baby carrots nearby just for them. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Aww. So cute. My grandson made “loveys” for Grampy and me. When he’s not here, the loveys sit on top of the bureau, but when he’s visiting they’re always in bed, heads on the pillows, covers pulled up. He is so delighted to see them there. 🙂 And congrats on landing in Target! Woo hoo!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s so great that you put the loveys in your bed. Way to go, grandma! Sometimes when I’m given a new one to sleep with, I’ll find it in my bed the way you described. Always makes me smile.
I’m still stunned by the Target thing, to be honest. I just happened to stumble upon it and was like whaaaaaaa??? Looks like it’s only online, so far as I can tell, not in stores. Maybe I should investigate that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s amazing how good it feels to sleep with a stuffed animal. We adults forget. Congrats on Target! What a milestone!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Right, about Target?! I have no idea how it got there. Well, okay, marketing people, I guess, but still! I wonder who all comes across it and buys it.
It is rather fun to snuggle with a soft, furry animal. On the rare occasion when I actually do grab one and tuck under my arm and chin, I think my husband gets jealous. 😉
LikeLike
My youngest daughter loved stuffed animals (in her 40’s now she still has a box of her stuffed animals in her basement that she swears she is going to give away someday). When we took her with us at 15 to go to the Philippines as missionaries she wanted a stuffed zebra to take with her. My husband searched everywhere to find one. Finally, he found one at a mall in St Louis where it was very expensive. I was a little unhappy that he spent so much money on a stuffed animal when we were trying to live cheaply as missionaries. But it was money well spent. She carried it with her on the plane and she still cherishes it today.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Awh. Great story. Totally worth it, then. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wolfie you already know about. I think he writes here sometimes when I’m not looking, so if you’ve read any odd stuff that purported to be from me, be skeptical. But, inspired by your mention of your own that you kept into adulthood and became cherished by your children, I must now write of J.A. Elmer.
I never knew of Elmer until I was an older child, at which point our parents, feeling they could finally trust us with him I guess, introduced him as a courting gift Daddy had presented to Mother. “J.A.” stood for Jackass, and he’d clearly suffered the ravages of time. Mother then sewed a piece back on him, and he stayed in the toy chest most of the time, I suppose as elder statesman to the likes of Wolfie, Emmet Kelly, and so on, who were semi-retired by then themselves. One didn’t play or otherwise trifle with J.A. Elmer, but somehow he managed to lose some further parts.
Much, much later, Mother had died, and Daddy had retired to Florida and remarried, and I brought Elmer to what I took to be his rightful home with him and Margrit. Daddy explained scornfully to her that Elmer had been my childhood toy and expressed disgust that I would still have him, and I had to contradict him, like didn’t he remember that Elmer had been his and Mother’s, and had not been our childhood toy, but something from his own adulthood? So I left Elmer parked there, where he twisted in what I thought was a cute way on a shelf, peering around a corner even with no eyes but a smiling mouth.
Next time I visited, Elmer was gone. Margrit explained that he’d been in bad condition and that she’d attempted to clean him in the washing machine, whereupon he’d fallen apart irretrievably.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And so J.A. met a watery grave. Margrit might have mob ties.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your book is at Target! Congrats. As for your ability to diplomatically redeem your birthday coupons, brilliant. You do this mom thing like a pro.
LikeLiked by 2 people
You’re too kind, Ally. Thanks. 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
I had a stuffed raccoon named Bandit (that’s original, huh?) that I brought everywhere. Kinda wish I still had him!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Awh. I’d love to see a picture of little Mark and Bandit. Or was this just two years ago? 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha! I doubt I have one, but if I happen to stumble across a photo of the two of us, I’ll post it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That would be great. 🙂
LikeLike
Pingback: It’s simple mathematics, really. — parentingisfunny – saleemkpk
Your book is fantastic
LikeLiked by 1 person
Why, thank you.
LikeLike
Your book is lit
LikeLike
Very sweet!
LikeLiked by 1 person