Chairman Mao, Reindeer, Pudgy Bear, and Bocky-mooney

So it took me a week, but I thought of at least one small purpose for this blog. It happened when I was working on my will, of all things. I realized that I can leave Luke the entirety of my "estate" - hahahahaha - but what will he do if I'm not around to tell him the stories he'd want to know? And for that matter, what if I'm just plain alive and I want him to know what was going on way back when? So, for what it's worth, this is for Luke.

In the past few weeks we've entered the random and goofy world of imaginary play. Luke's favorite partners in crime are the three musketeers, also known as Chairman Mao, Reindeer, and Pudgy Bear. I wish I had a picture of all three, but they're an elusive bunch. They can usually be counted on to be reading books, taking a nap, or cooking up a fresh batch of diapers somewhere. Chairman Mao is a fluffy white cat that I bought as a "lovey" for Luke when I wanted him to stop nursing; the idea being that he would cuddle up with the cat whenever he wanted to nurse. That went out the window pretty quickly as soon as he and Chairman Mao decided that they were both pretty much cool with nursing. Reindeer is our cool new buddy who generally needs to be alerted as soon as any new action is being taken ("Reindeer! Change diaper!") And Pudgy Bear is the bear that Arianna gave to us and who lived most of his life as Arianna Bear until one day out of the blue Luke started calling him Pudgy Bear. I don't think he has any idea what pudgy means, and I think it is probably some attempt at "Arianna" but Pudgy Bear stuck and that's what we all call him now. He used to sleep in the crib, but now he watches Luke calmly from the floor at night. During the day he's another good old pal who's always up for a haircut or two.

Why these three and not some other animals or objects? I guess it's fair to say that these three have the most "personality", such as it is, but other than that it seems to be sort of random. Kind of like, why is the castle book such a hit, when "A Good Day for Up" never quite made it past the first-read stage? Or why is chicken parmesan one day the most amazing food in the universe (mas! mas! mas!) and another day a plate of it cannot even be allowed at the same table where we are eating? Or for that matter, what's the deal with avocados, which Luke won't go near, but suddenly bocky-mooney is all he'll eat? (That's guacamole to the uninitiated)...

Each night we usually close out the evening with some form of musical entertainment. Last night it was an all-star guitar-jamming tribute to bocky-mooney (see photo above). Tonight we sat down for a mellower concert video. Luke has his own idea of what he wants to see (mas harmonica? mas drums?). But I think he truly melted Dave's heart tonight when he said, slowly and deliberately, two words that Dave could only dream of hearing someday from his very own son: "Bob......Dylan."