Forgotten Sleep

When it’s a puppy’s chew toy.

Each time I’ve had a child, people have been incredibly generous with the gifts they have given. We were able to get our children to 3-months-old before we had to buy clothing. We made it through most of my maternity leave the first time without having the buy diapers. We were overwhelmingly thankful for everything we received.

There were, however, I few strange gifts along the way. One woman gave Big Girl two enormous Muppet-type puppets when she was barely two months old. Another well-wisher gave Little Man a toy with several small, removable, easily-choked-upon pieces. But the gifts they both received today take the cake.

Keep in mind, neither of them is a newborn. These gifts are late-coming from a family friend. It was very thoughtful of her to remember the children and try to send them something that they would like. Clearly, though, she was shopping in the wrong department. At first glance, Little Man’s toy is a red teething ring. Big Girl’s stuffed animal is a squeaky dog.

At second glace, however, the red teething ring has paw prints all on it, is labeled as a tire and is from a company called “Dogsavers.” On closer inspection, Big Girl’s squeaky dog starts to look much more like a rat than a pup. Yes, this lovely woman who truly did want to give my children something they would like shopped in the pet aisle for baby and kids’ gifts.

Loving Husband and I often laugh about how Little Man looks like a puppy when he crawls across the floor with his sock hanging from his mouth. We never actually considered, however, that we should buy him a toy from the doggie aisle.

As for Squeaky Rat — he’s kinda scary. I think he’s going to go into hiding. Or maybe I’ll go find Squeaky Cat.