tim

Meet Tim. Tim is Billy's best friend. He was a gift from my cousin Monique for his first birthday, and they have been buddies ever since. In this picture he is dressed as Darth Vader, and he and Billy just had a fight with light sabers, though I am informed by my son that being Darth Vader, his light saber should have been red.

The other day, Billy put his shoes on Tim, as well as a shirt and ball cap, and played baseball with him. He would throw the ball to the dog, and then say things like, "Good job buddy, you almost had that one!" He was very encouraging, and I nearly fell out of my chair laughing. Needless to say I love Tim, although I would love him more if I was allowed to throw him in the washing machine once in a while, but I am told that Tim never takes a bath.

Tim is just another, in a line of stuffed animals that have brought much joy to our family. We have night time bear, which is Emma's bear that my friend Pam brought for her when she was visiting from Egypt, it is the ugliest thing that I have ever seen, but to this day Emma can't sleep without it. We also have Barky the dog, which Katie found on the floor of TJ Max when she was 18 months old, and I'm not even sure it was for sale, but they gave him to me for 4 bucks, and he is still around today, although sewn back together several times.

Jack doesn't have one, he has lots of stuffed objects that he sleeps with from time to time, but not any particular one that he considers special. I like to think it is because he is so secure that he doesn't need one, but that doesn't bode well for the other three kids.

So this is my little tribute to furrry friends that don't require feeding, or cleaning up after.

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather is one of those things that give value to survival."
- C. S. Lewis