I'm fighting a losing battle against little fuzzy creatures! The kids get them as gifts and they spent the money Abuelita sent them on still more stuffed animals. For a long time I managed, by discreetly sorting them and hauling off a sack of them to donate, to limit stuffed animals to what fitted into one laundry basket. Now there is a laundry basket in the girls room and one in the boys room, and stuffed animals are lurking all over. Under beds, under the couch, falling out of the bookcase headboards in the boy's room, etc. I even woke up a few days ago and found a stuffed frog wedged in my armpit! Thomas still sleeps in our bed, and I guess Mama and Papa were not enough. Last night we were joined not only by a very large almost three year old, but his bear named Corderoy, a small tiger, a dolphin, and another blue bear he borrowed from Fermin. We only have a queen sized bed, so it gets a little crowded. I don't think I played with stuffed animals much at all when I was a kid, but of course we had an assortment of them. I remember my mom trying to devise new ways of storing them out of the way. One time she rigged up a clothesline and we were supposed to clip the animals to it. That lasted less than a week. We were not tidy children, especially me, and the animals ended up all over the floor again with all our other stuff.
My kids, who are also born mess-makers, do love to play with stuffed animals. Each child usually has several in bed with them, and they take them on car rides. Their favorite game with my grandpa is when they show him a tiger or iguana or something and he pretends it is attacking him. The last time my grandparents were here they just couldn't get enough of that game. Since I'm a mom, I love to make my kids happy, and I can't get rid of any of their favorite critters. The problem is that the list of favorites is getting longer and longer. I'm such a pushover that I actually have recently purchased 3 stuffed animals as gifts. Catherine doesn't have a stuffed cat. She has all sorts of other ones, but she looks longingly at Fermin's cat, as he pets it ostentatiously. Thomas adores penguins and has a special penguin dance he does. Fermin always tells me that he needs (another!) doggy. So, I have purchased a dog, cat, and a mother and baby penguin set. I will probably have a penguin in my armpit on Christmas night, but the kids will be thrilled.
We are sending a care package to Therese for her birthday, which is in December. Hopefully the orphanage lets her have it, since they are not very open to contact outside the official channels. I figured it was worth the money to try to send her something, since she has a family but we can't go get her yet. We chose a fleece blankie and a stuffed animal to go with the birthday cake. The options for the stuffed animals were bear, panda, rabbit, dog, or goat. Yes, I had to stop and read that one over again--goat! I thought that was so funny that when I go to China next year I'm going to be shopping for stuffed animals. I have never seen a stuffed goat before, and my kid's collection is definitely lacking one.
