Grinch Joins the Zoo

When we first moved Tommy into his crib to sleep around the 10 week mark, the few stuffed animals that "decorated" the crib were removed when he was in the crib.  New parents are scared out of their wits that your baby will suffocate, choke or otherwise injury him/herself if  there's a stuffed animal, bumper, blanket, etc. in the crib with your baby.  I was one of those parents - though I admit to using the bumpers because I feared Tommy would knock his head on the crib as well. Fortunately, we never had any issues and eventually started letting Tommy use a "lovey" when we put him to bed.  He didn't really use it - I think it was more for me than him - maybe it made me think he wasn't feeling abandoned when we left him in the crib and then the room by himself? 

Nowadays, the crib is essentially a zoo, filled with a variety of animals.  While I figured Tommy would use a few of his favorites at night to go to bed as he grew up, I don't think I anticipated what actually exists in his crib now every night.  While he still has his favorites - Orange Guy (Dr. Seuss), Tux the cat lookalike, and Panda, he knows when someone seems to be missing from the menagarie.  In addition to the 3 favorites we currently have a medium bear, a small bear that was the original "lovey", Elmo, medium and small size ducks, a dog, a crocheted mini duck  and 2 small cats that may or may not have belonged to Tux and Tails but Tommy has adopted as his own. And every once in a while he'll invite someone else in to join the party.  Tonight it was the Grinch.  He also had the 3 little animal blankets that I keep on the corners of his crib join in as well - depending on the night and who else is at the party, Tommy will pull them into the mix if he thinks they're a good fit.

All that room and he chooses to squish himself against the one end of the crib



Notice the pillow in the middle of it all, only being used by Panda to put up his feet

 What is so funny about this whole thing is that when I put him in the crib, he arranges and rearranges where all these things go several times, as if to get them comfortable along with himself.  I lay on the floor next to the crib watching it all unfold, wishing I had a secret time lapse video to record the set up, and figure out what goes into the placement of everyone.  Grinch was lucky enough to be Tommy's pillow to start the night off tonight...not sure that's where he'll be when I check on him before I go off myself.  So long as these friends do their job and help Tommy get a good night's sleep, he can have as many of them in his crib zoo as he wants!