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LOVE: STUFFIES AND OTHER FRIENDS
By: Ashley Hoppe | February 2, 2023
I have heard that February is the month for love. Now, I’m not really sure why because there doesn’t seem to be anything specifically special about February. It is pretty rainy and pretty cold. I’ve spent a lot of days inside playing with my many toys and my caregivers, including my mom and dad. I love spending time with them, but I also love being outside, playing on the playground and in the sand. So, if I am not able to do something that I love so much during most of the month of February, how can that be the month of love? I am able to go outside throughout February, however just not every day. Also, I don’t love the cold because it makes me uncomfortable, but I also do not love wearing marshmallow type jackets. It makes it hard to move my arms and throws me off balance, which makes it harder to play on the playground and in the sand. But, I guess I just have to accept that February is the month of love. My grown ups say that that is the case, and the other people that I see say that is the case, so I will just have to believe that this is the case.
With it being February it makes me think about toys that I do and don’t love. My parents really want me to love stuffed animals, I think partially because I know they still sleep with one or two on their bed. They’ve gotten me many stuffed animals including a bear, a rabbit, a penguin, a really fluffy dinosaur, and a snoopy puppy. I know I should like them because they are so soft and it feels so nice to hold onto them and hug them, but I just really don’t like them. I’ll sit and look at the animal in the face and really try to talk to it, and understand it but it never responds to me, and just stares right back in my face. It really unnerves me. I know that the stuffed animals aren’t real, but they seem so real and they are not that much smaller than me. It really seems that they should be real. But regardless, I just can’t bring myself to really like any of them for more than a few minutes at once. Even the fluffy dinosaur doesn’t do it for me, even though I know in theory it would be so nice to cuddle with. My mom has a stuffed unicorn she has had since she was a baby and I think she wants the same situation for me so sometimes I hold onto the rabbit a little more than the others, but I really have no actual interest in it. I am just trying to make her feel better.
My parents also really want me to love books. They read to me all the time, different books with really cool photos, some books that make sounds when you push a button and some books that have fun bubbles to pop. But, I just really don’t like to read. When one of them opens a book to read to me, I race over and try to shut it right away. I try to get them to understand that I don’t want to read a book, I would rather just crawl all around and play peek-a-boo or hide and seek. I know that I should really love reading, but I just don’t know if it’s for me. Sometimes I will turn a page for them instead of just closing the book, but it’s always before they’re done reading that page and so they will just continue on the same page until they have read all the words on it. Maybe I am leading them on because I take all the books off the shelves and so it looks like I am wanting to read, but really I am just trying to make a mess since that is something that I actually do love doing. I love watching the books fall to the ground because there are big books and small books, hard books and soft books and they all fall differently and make different sounds when they hit the ground.
But enough of talking about what I don’t love during the month of love, what about what I do love? I know without a doubt that I love bath toys. The little rubber ones that are shaped like different animals. Such as a frog or a crab. I love playing with them while not in the bath. I love playing with them just on the ground in my playroom. They fit so nicely in my hand so that I can carry them around with me while I am crawling or walking and even trying to grab onto other things. They aren’t big so I know they aren’t real and I can hide them in places to surprise my parents whenever they find them. I like to bring them to the park because I can hide them from other people too, since I can just hold them in my hand. I like the way they feel and I love to cuddle them.
One other thing that I really love is something called a ball drop. It's a wooden box with a circle hole in the top where I can drop balls so they come out the bottom so that I can drop them down again and again. I love doing that. Every time I drop a ball it makes a satisfying noise when it hits the wood and rolls out. I like that I can stick my hand in the opening and get the ball back if it gets stuck. I also love putting things that are not the balls into the ball drop. Honestly, I even put my bath toys in. I think it's my own little hiding area where I can hide all of my favorite things. When I think about it, maybe February makes sense to be the month of love because then I will be home more often and I can play with my bath toys and the ball drop. Oh, what fun!
Ashley Hoppe lives in Novato with her husband Brett and their son Jackson. You can find her hiking or trying a new coffee shop. She’d be delighted to hear from you at ashlauwain@gmail.com.