Favorite Friends

A friend of mine recently posted on how difficult it is to get a picture of her three kids together. I agree this is difficult. But I never imagined how difficult it would be to get a picture of my kids favorite friends all together- especially considering they are stuffed animals. Jotham keep pulling his bear out of the picture, so I have a bunch with his hand in it and Karis kept putting other things (airplanes, other animals, etc.) into the picture.

But here they are: Doggie, Buster (most often called Bear) and the yet to be named pink Monkey. The kids sleep with these every night and really adore them. So I wanted to get a picture of them before they get in even worse condition. If you got real close you'd notice that Doggie's tail is very worn because Karis loves to smell it and rub it on her nose and Bear's one ear is wet and worn from Jotham rubbing it on his lip while he sucks his thumb. Pretty gross- I know- I won't tell you how often I actually wash these because then you'd be even more grossed out but I figure I am helping build their immunities.

Doggie was given to Karis by my friend Joy when she was 9 months old because Joy thought she ought to introduce my child to animals (since I'm not a big fan). Karis immediately loved him and within days would not sleep without him. This is actually a replacement Bear. The first Bear was given to Jotham by friend Christine, when Jotham was 3 or 4 months old he left him a Chinese restaurant. Christine then sent him another one (she is so kind). Monkey was chosen by Karis as a gift for Mercia, she was chosen because she has a long tail and Karis wants Mercia "to suck her thumb, and rub the tail on her nose."

Karis also sleeps with Buddy, George & 3 other bears (all the same, all called Mush) and Jotham sleeps with a doggie (which was actually a backup for Karis' dog) and a basketball. But these friends are their absolute "don't go away with these Mom and certainly don't leave them someplace on vacation" favorites.