Every Gallant Knight...

...needs a trusty stead.

Meet Tommy's:



He has always enjoyed riding around on this little horse. A while back he got it into his head that he was a cowboy, and took to cruising the apartment on it. But recently the relationship has evolved.

When we rearranged Tommy's room to fit his (far larger than a crib) twin bed, there wasn't a lot of space left for his toys. I ended up placing the horse in the space between his bed and the bookshelf, essentially, right next to the head of his bed. After the first blissful night or two in the bed when he actually went to sleep right away, Tommy realized that the big-boy bed gives him freedom (we do not choose to enforce sleep, but we do enforce staying in the room after bedtime). Now he jumps out of bed almost as soon as we leave the room and does various weird things. The weirdest of which is hopping on that horse, riding it across the room in the dark, parking it next to the door, and opening the door a crack to stick his head out. He can't do much more than that due to a strategically placed baby gate. Then he either stands at the baby gate and attempts to participate in whatever Jeff and I are doing by inserting himself in our conversations (see example below), plays with his toys, or, sits on the horse and listens. The last choice invariably leads to sleepiness, and falling asleep on the horse. He ends up on the horse almost every night. Sometimes at naptime too.





It works out fine, most nights. Once we hear the snuffles and snores one of us picks him up and places him in bed. But some nights we don't hear the sleep breathing before we hear a loud THUNK! Then we run to the room and find Tommy on the floor next to the horse, sometimes still sleeping, other times, shocked and crying. He never learns his leasson- he always gets back in the saddle.

A real account of Tommy's attempts to join in adult conversation follows. The background you need for this is that I'm a Mac and Jeff is a PC. But, I am a Mac-less Mac at the moment because my iBook is essentially not functional. Jeff still has his PC. Therefore, I am always angling for a new Mac (even though I understand perfectly that I neither need it nor am going to get it). Also, I am a Mac because I grew up using Macs, and because they are both cute AND easy to use. Jeff feels that those are not qualities that computers need to possess, and may be slighting exasperated by my desire to choose a computer based only on the way it looks...the following was some computer inspired friendly banter-

Me: But, have you seen the iPads? They do everything a computer can do. I've seen one. They are so cool. They do everything I need.
Jeff: You mean word processing and internet.
Me: Exactly. All I need.(pause for thinking) I could put pictures and video on them too, right? I do need that.
Jeff: Yes, but a netbook would do that for half the price. You need an ipad like a fish needs a bicycle.
Tommy: Fish needs a bicycle!
We both crack-up, and so does Tommy.
Me: Hmmm...what about a Macbook Air?