A boy and his cats

Here’s someone who’s ready to go to day care!

He’s got his Blankie Horse ready and everything. Now, this was a little known secret up until recently, but Evan has two identical Blankie Horses; one of them lives at day care, and the other is the one he snoozes with at home. Evan loves his Blankie Horse, and needs one anywhere he’s expected to sleep. On Friday, “Blankie Horse #2” comes home and, along with the crib sheet we send to day care with him, gets washed.

But…what happens if the two Blankie Horses meet? Will the resulting surge of both blankiness and horsiness destroy the time-space continuum as we know it?

Well, not really. You’ll just wind up with one happy kid who had two Blankie Horses. He went toodling around the house while I was dealing with laundry and litterboxes, and found his day care bag with the other Blankie Horse. You’d think he’d never been so happy, the way he was going through the house waving them proudly like flags.

You may notice that the Blankie Horses each have a dark “snout”; that’s not actually how they’re made. Evan spends a lot of time gnawing on his Blankie Horses’ noses (it’s a teething thing), and as a result, the noses get rather dirtier than the rest of ’em. I’ve taken to calling this phenomenon “muzzlecrust.” It just sounds appropriately unsavory. If a Blankie Horse has a lot of muzzlecrust, she’ll probably get washed sooner rather than later.

Someone asked me the other day “How does Evan like day care?” and my answer was fine. The next question was “How does Earl like day care?” and I have to admit, it’s a mixed bag for me. I’m doing quite a bit of work on the video end of things lately, so in that respect it’s a load off my mind, but at the same time, I miss the little guy fiercely when he’s gone and wonder how he’s doing all the time. The folks at the day care just love him – he’s friendly to the other kids, generous and sharing, and even tries to cheer them up if they get upset by patting them on the back. It’s almost enough to make one think that I’ve raised – thus far – a happy, well-adjusted, compassionate child. Who woulda thunk it?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…sleepyheads.