The Friends in the Bed

Every since Jordan moved from his crib to a bed, he has been accumulating things that sleep in his bed with him. In his toddler bed he didn’t have as much room as he does now so what used to be about 5-10 things is now about 30 things. I use the word things instead of stuffed animals, because in addition to the numerous stuffed things that live on the bed you will also find a plastic thing that looks like a pink sea anemone (his beloved Squirmy), another plastic ball thing that has soft spikes on it which smells like petroleum (named Squishy), a bendy orange rose pen (that he insisted we get at the dollar store), and two foam sunflowers in pots that say New England Organics (his dad got them for him at a Bio-solids conference).

The most beloved members of the bed are his favorite “friends”: the before mentioned Squirmy, a dog with big eyes named Pal, a small Reese’s Cup guy with arms and legs named Chocolate, a blanket with a teddy bear head in the middle of it named Bear Blankie (thank you Aunt Robbie for buying it when he was born), and the newest edition to the beloved friends-a dog named Bullet. These are the friends who get to actually leave the bed on most days and travel with him to different places when we go away. Three Build-a Bears also occupy the bed. They are Haney-the tan soft bear, the brown sugar puppy which is named Happy, and a cat named Fluffy Stripes Weaver (I had nothing to do with the purchase of this animal. He was with his aunt and Grandma Weaver.) Some other friends worth mentioning are: Ben Franklin Bear (we got him on our trip to Philly last year), Uncle Terry Bear (a care bear that he received from my uncle), a Beanie Baby white angel bear to remember Samuel, and a 1 ½ foot tall snowman named Freddie. Several celebrities also get to reside on the bed: Clifford (the puppy-the normal size Clifford would be way too big), Charlie Brown, Blue from Blue’s Clues, Babe the pig, and Dunkin’ the doughnut from the Doughnut Man videos.

Needless to say, the friends take up half of the bed, and Jordan gets the other half.