Crowded Bed

When I was in elementary school I slept with a ton of stuffed animals on my bed. They each had a specific place and I called them my Group. I tried to lay perfectly still and not move in the night in order not to disturb their placement on my bed. A yarn-haired Cabbage Patch doll named Mrs. Proctor watched over them all day while I was at school. I think I had at least 15 animals ranging from an oversized Easter bunny I got at the grocery store all the way down to a plastic straw from a Tropicana juice box. Yes, you read that right. A plastic straw. His name was Strawie and I loved him and was devastated when I eventually threw him away. Toy Story 3 is an emotional movie for me to watch, okay! 

I still have my baby blanket, Yellow, and my favorite stuffed animal, Cowie.

Anyways, when I was pregnant with Kip I bought a stuffed bear at a gift shop in Cold Springs, New York. The name he came with is Toothpick and he is adorable. I really wanted Kip to attach to that bear and I even took his one year old monthly photos with it and put it in his crib every night once he was old enough to have stuffed toys in his crib.

Kip still has Toothpick but he never took to it as a comfort toy. In fact, he never took to anything in particular despite accumulating many stuffed toys. On his third birthday Auntie Jess sent him a stuffed Racoon from Arizona and that is the first animal he really took to cuddling with and insisting on having to sleep. This past Christmas my mom gave him a stuffed dog named Timber and so Coonie and Timber are his favorite duo. See them at the bottom of this photo from Easter morning.

All of his other stuffed pals lived at the end of his bed or in a basket, until last week. For a week straight now he has insisted on having all of his stuffed animals crowd next to him in messy heaps all night long.

A couple of things about Kip sleeping. He flops all over the bed all night and he rarely has covers on. He has the "Johnson family hot feet syndrome" and cannot have his feet covered (same as his Dad and Grandma). He sleeps with his mouth open but breathes through his nose (it's a consequence of having a pacifier for three+ years).  I'm wondering when he will learn to sleep without the need for a bed rail?? 100% he would fall out of this bed without one.

Happy cuddling!