Bedtime Buddies

New this summer was Hugh’s first stuffed animal that joined him in bed. Ducks in books and pictures were always referred to as “quack quacks” (pronounced, “kak kak”) and it seemed obvious that the yellow stuffed duck became his first buddy. Quackquack even came to the beach this year! Only for bedtime though, it’s not one of those travel everywhere animals . . . yet.

In recent weeks, a few other animals have joined the bedtime crew. Following quackquack came “Meow”, a stuffed cat from the “If You Give a Cat a Cupcake” book, and usually the two went together. A pair that almost replaced them (but didn’t) was “Eee eee,” a Valentine’s day monkey holding a stuffed heart, and “Roar,” a cool tiger from Aunt Renee and family. I think my favorite is the orange and purple striped Dr. Seuss character, a wocket from “There’s a Wocket in my Pocket,” which Hugh has named, “Coat.” Coat’s a weird thing, but has an adorable name!

A few other stuffed animals are on deck, but don’t make the cut too often. “Bear,” who is named by what he is and not what he sounds like, is an Alpaca fur bear Uncle Curt got from his life outside the U.S. “Woof woof” is a foxhound that looks a little like Melvin the Foxhound and every now and again we meet “Moo”, the moose from “If You Give a Moose a Muffin.”

Not all these buddies make it into the crib at night, there wouldn’t be much room for Hugh! The ones who are not picked await their friends to join them again – typically right after Hugh wakes up and, first thing of the day, asks me to put the animals together on the chair. Hopefully I can get an E.T. photo with Hugh on the chair surrounded by his new bedtime buddies.