As most of you know, Tad has a “lovey.”  His is Bunny, this now much-loved and many-times-washed bunny blanket (a gift from Great-Grandma when we found out he was a boy).  Bunny has been with him in the best of times (Bunny was in the carry-on diaper bag on our recent trip to Disneyland, because we couldn’t risk packing Bunny in with the luggage, and Tad slept with him every night), and in the worst of times (Bunny was allowed to accompany Tad into surgery when his broken arm was being set).

Bunny is one of his closest and dearest friends.

And I could not find Bunny right before naptime yesterday.

Now, I knew he was in the house, because I had seen Bunny at breakfast and I knew that he had not gone out with us (Tad had opted for his soft stuffed McQueen instead).  But Tad is the master of hiding things in obscure places, so Bunny could be anywhere.

Like under his bed.

Or in the bathtub.

Or in my room.

I was hunting around, not really worried, but definitely curious as to where Bunny was now.  “Tad, where’s Bunny?”  I asked him, on the off chance that he’d remember where he left it.

“Bunny?  Oh, no!”  Tad exclaimed, and then began hunting in the living room himself, calling out, “Bunny!  Where are ‘ou??”

(To those of you wondering if Tad is speaking in sentences, the answer is no.  To him, “where are you” is a single word-phrase, because he doesn’t use those words in any other context.  He does the same thing with the phrase “what you doing?”)

Anyway, I joined in.  So, there we are, calling out to Bunny.  “Bunny!  Where are ‘ou?”  Tad repeated, hands cupped around his mouth.

I decided to check Ane’s room.  He’s been known to toss Bunny in there before.  Ane was listening to a read-along.  “Ane, is Bunny in here?”  I asked.

“No, Bunny’s on the bathroom floor,” she replied, never lifting her eyes from her read-along book.

She was right.  Hey, at least someone knew where he was.

“Tad, here’s Bunny!”  I called, holding it out to him.

“Bunny!”  Tad cried, and gave it a huge hug.

Naptime then commenced (after TWO readings of A Fish Out Of Water), and all was right with the universe.

Ane is at Sports Camp this week - our church’s version of Vacation Bible School.  The older kids get to pick a sport (basketball, soccer, or cheerleading), while the younger kids (ages 3 to pre-kindergarten) get to sample everything, jump on the bouncy house, and do some crafts.  I kept Tad out of it this year mostly because he isn’t three yet, but several of the kids from his age group are going to it, including Denny.  Ane, of course, is surrounded by her buddies, including Lina, and the Brain and Head (who don’t attend our church but do come every year to Sports Camp).

Auntie is one of the leaders for the mini-camp (the younger group) again this year, and on Monday they were teaching the kids a cheer.  As Auntie told me, it goes:
God made the sky!
God made the sea!
God made everything,
He even made me!

After running through it a few times with the kids, the leaders asked the kids if one of them knew it well enough to do it in front of the group.  Ane’s hand went up immediately, Auntie said.  So, Ane got up, and began to cheer:
God made the sky!
God made the sea!
God made everything,
except for me!

Auntie couldn’t stop laughing as she was telling this to me later, because Ane really does believe that God made her… it just came out wrong in the cheer.  When I repeated this to the Webmaster, he got a good laugh in, then shook his head.  “God made her, but I think He broke the mold when He did.”

While in southern California, I finally got to meet someone who has been a real blogging friend to me - Matthew from ChildsPlayx2.  He brought his lovely wife Andrea and his adorable twins out to meet our whole entourage at the San Diego Zoo while we were there.

He’s already blogged about our meeting, and how Ane managed to get herself lost and lose his son within just a few hours of meeting them.  Siccing Ane on new kids is never a pretty picture.  It’s a good thing everyone was found fairly quickly, and again, my apologies.  Fortunately, he reads the blog so he kind of had an idea of what Ane would be like…

It was really cool to be in the presence of blogging greatness.  Matthew has been consistently supportive in my blogging efforts, and for a while, I was the most popular link on his site after he posted about our visit.  THAT was a real thrill.  I’ve fallen down the ladder since, but it was really fun to see that for a few days.

But the best part was just getting to chat with and spend some time with someone who has only existed inside a computer for the longest time.  Matthew and Andrea were very gracious and funny, and we really enjoyed the time we spent at the zoo with them.  Ane now refers to the twins, TheMonk and Swee’Pea, as her “zoo friends.”  TheMonk and Swee’Pea managed to not be totally overwhelmed by Ane’s smothering friendliness, and they are even cuter in person than in their pictures.  The twins are two months older than Tad, and I’ve been reading about them since they were little babies, so it was really fun (and kind of shocking - how did they grow up so fast??) to meet two very BIG kids!

And, as proof that he didn’t find us to be completely crazy people, Matthew is still reading and commenting on the blog.  *whew*

Thanks again for meeting up with us, Matthew!  And you are always welcome up here in the Northwest - and I promise to not allow my kids to lose your kids again.  Honest.

On a totally off-topic but important note, happy birthday to Resiss!!  According to UPS, your birthday package should be arriving tomorrow.  I sent your card separately.  Happy 25th!!!

All my regular readers know that Tad is a devoted Cars fan.  His favorite car?  Lightning McQueen, of course!

So imagine his delight when we watched the Pixar Play Parade at California Adventure and the first thing (and the “grand marshal” of the parade) to come down the street was this:

Tad thought he had died and gone to heaven.  He kept yelling, “A-Keen!  A-Keen!” (Tad-speak for “McQueen”), and yes, we have it on videotape.

The other thing that he loved and we got on video was the Bountiful Valley Farm at CA Adventure, which is just inside “a bug’s land” and has an irrigation-style water play area.  We literally dragged Tad out of there kicking and screaming, even though his lips were blue and his teeth were chattering.  And it was one of the days when I didn’t have a change of clothes for the kids on me, which would have been very handy.  I kept a change of clothes in the backpack from that point on.

And, of course, every time we passed through Downtown Disney and walked by the World of Disney store (which was a GREAT place to shop), Tad had to stop and take a good look at his favorite window:

Each picture window was themed around a character (example: Mickey), a line concept (example: Princesses), or a movie (example: Cars).  Tad would not let us pass by peacefully until he had pointed out all of his favorite characters, and then said good-bye to them all.

Note how spectacularly unimpressed his sister is.  Ane preferred the Princess window - but, better yet, she preferred shopping inside the store.

And I don’t know what it is about this boy and Pixar movies, but his favorite ride was easily the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, though he did enjoy both Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters and the new Toy Story Midway Mania rides.  Oh, and Casey Junior.  We got to sit in the monkey cage twice, and he loved riding on a train.  So did Ane.

I would really love to take Tad back in a couple of years, after he’s been in school and done some intensive speech therapy work.  I can’t imagine how different he will be then.