Bedtime Stories

I found out today that Travis believes all baseball catchers are named "Strike". I determined this while we were playing a makeshift game of T-ball this evening, where Travis decided he was the catcher. Noah went to try to pick up the catcher's mitt and Travis said, "No, Noah, I'm Strike..." So we had a little conversation about it, I asked him if his name was Strike, he said yes, because I'm the catcher. I asked why that meant his name was Strike and he said, "Because that's what the guy says whenever the catcher catches the ball."

Clever little fella.

As I was putting the boys to bed tonight, first Travis decided he was very sad because he left his little stuffed dog Cupcake at ya-ya's house. Now, mind you, he has only cared one whit about this little dog for about 26 hours. Before last night, it was just another stuffed animal cluttering up our house. But he stumbled across it yesterday and decided he loved it, we named it, and he's carried it around obsessively since. If you know Travis, this is not a surprise. Let me give you some background. Up until about 2 weeks ago, Travis had a veritable litter of stuffed animals that he insisted upon taking to ya-ya's house daily. Ya-ya even bought him a good sized cloth bag for transport. Let me introduce you:

• Moose: a staple since Travis was 11 months old, Moose goes practically everywhere. Never to pre-school or other places where there's lots of kids, or on shopping expeditions and the like. But for the most part, where Travis goes, so goes Moose.

• Boxer: a do-it-yourself Build-A-Bear creation, Boxer is a little stuffed dog that Ben bought at the store one time as a reward for completing some sticker chart. I can't remember which. It might have been potty training. We put it together ourselves, the stitching is a little primordial so I'm not sure how much longer he'll hold up.

• Blueberry: Blueberry was a gift from an ex-co-worker of mine, either for my baby shower while I was pregnant with Travis, or shortly after he was born. A light blue stuffed dog that says "My First Puppy" on the collar, Blueberry was another one of those that no one really cared about until a few months ago.

• Brownie: A stuffed giraffe that Travis and Ben made at the Build-A-Bear at Brookfield Zoo in Chicago about a month ago, Brownie has now been added to this group of treasured animals. I would note that Travis spends essentially zero time playing with, cuddling with, or otherwise engaging with Brownie, but insists still on having him make the trek between houses.

• Goose: A stuffed pink duck that Travis won at his soon-to-be new Pre-School's school fair this spring. A duck named Goose. Love it.

• Tomato:  See previous blog.

• Milk: A tiny stuffed kitty cat that was also a gift from a co-worker, received at my baby shower for Travis. He's always kind of liked this cat but only recently has it made the hot list.

About two weeks ago, I decided I'd had enough, and told Travis he could pick two animals to take with him to ya-ya's. I mean, I felt like I was constantly counting stuffed animals, or gathering them up, or saying "whoa I think Noah just threw Blueberry in the recycling," - it was getting ridiculous. And he seemed to be adding animals at an exponential rate. So now he takes Moose and some random animal -- today Cupcake. The rest stay in Travis's bed. My life is so much easier now.

Back to the story, we could not find Cupcake when we left ya-ya's house today. (He's about the size of a jumbo jellybean, after all...) Travis was mostly okay with this until bedtime, when he got sad again. To help him feel better, I told him to try to think of the funniest thing he could think of. We came up with a tomato frog eating tomatoes in a tomato tree. Then he cracked up laughing and rolled over, and went to sleep.

On my way out of the room, Noah told me he wanted "Pickle the Tar". It took me about twelve guesses to figure out that he wanted a song -- "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". A little serenading, and he's sleeping contentedly as well.

Sophie's sleeping also, after a full bowl of cereal, bottle, and bath. Yippee.

Now its my turn.