Bears!

Since Lillian posted a picture of her kids' stuffed animals, I thought I'd post a picture of Small Boy's tribe of bears (I don't have the heart to tell him that bears are solitary creatures and wouldn't live in a tribe like this; he can learn that on the next Yellowstone trip perhaps.)



The white bear was mine as a kid, so Small Boy calls it "Mama rar-rar"; the other two bears both go by the ignomious name of "udduh rar-rar." It's hard to see but behind his sucking thumb he's holding on to his neck with his other hand, which is his unique self-soothing technique. He used to pinch his neck so hard he'd leave little red welts and yet found it comforting; now he just holds on to a little bit of skin. He sucks his thumb a lot, but when he goes for the double-barrelled thumb-suck-neck-hold-combo I know he's really desperate. I'm pretty sure we put him to bed not long after this picture was taken.