and he was named Bunny

This is not a truly significant post, nor does it hold any thought provoking points or questions...but it's something I want to remember. It's worth remembering at the Yarbrough house.

William has a sidekick named Bunny. He's a bunny. (surprised?) I use the term sidekick...but he really is glued to my child and brings more excitement to William than I think Bryant or I combined do!

Let me begin with Bunny's story...
When William was born, I placed an elephant lovey (that had the name, Elly...we are a very group of creative animal namers) in his crib. I wanted Elly to be his "it" animal/lovie/blanket thing. He was too young to care, or probably even know there was something in his crib with him! :)

William's first Easter, Dad and Suzanne sent an Easter basket to W...in it was the cutest, softest chocolate bunny. I sat the bunny in W's crib, mainly because it matched...ha! It stayed there and one day...many months later...I watched in the monitor as William grabbed the bunny by the neck and repeated banged him from side to side against the mattress. I called Dad and told him, we got a good laugh...and "life with bunny" began. I thought it would be a love/hate relationship, as all he wanted to do was bang him against anything and everything.

Bunny became a fixture in William's hand. He didn't take a pappy long, nor is he a thumb sucker...he will however, take Bunny's ears or feet (he's not picky) and will suck on those. We've gone into his room a many of night to pull Bunny out of his mouth. Gross, yes. Sweet, incredibly!

We go to the doctor with Bunny, the grocery store, restaurants, and of course friends/family's houses. Anytime a good cry or good sleep is needed..Bunny is there!

As you can imagine a year of teething, chewing/sucking on ears/feet, snotty noses, tears, and numerous spit ups or spilled milk and several thousands of outings...Bunny has a less than desirable odor. So I decided to order a new one. That way "back up bunny" would be there in case we happened to loose Bunny or he needed a wash in a critical time.

Reason 101 why we needed a back up...

Well "back up bunny" (as he is now referred too, remember, we are fantastic at naming things...) arrived this week. I was so tickled and just knew I could pull an old switcheroo on the little guy. I pulled him out of the box and called William. If I say "I've got Bunny!!" I normally will hear an excited squeal and will see a little face anxious to get his hands on his little furry friend. So the little guy came toddling into the kitchen to see me holding "back up bunny." I handed him to William, he got one good feel and dropped him, and immediately started crying. Yep, this momma can't even pull one over on a 1 year old.

Momma, what do you mean there's another one?

I decided that maybe I should wash new bunny and give him that roughed up feel...maybe that would help...so I washed him several times and when Bryant got home that night he thought he would give it a shot. He hid Bunny (William had been carrying him around all day...he probably was very aware I may try and take him) and gave W the "back up bunny" William threw it down and immediately went to his room and started staring thru the slats of his crib trying to locate the real deal. He does this often when he leaves Bunny in the bed and decides he needs him...just yanks him through the slats.

It has had us laughing all weekend about our bunny situation and our little guy being very aware of what is going on around him. So, we've come to the conclusion and decided we will stick to the original and pray that the odor that comes from him will go unnoticed....

I must admit, I am rather fond of William loving his Bunny. It is a daily reminder for me of my amazing Dad. Dr. Wood and I talked at W's last check up, as he received all his shots and examines with a bunny ear in his mouth...she said "Whitney, that is sweet...and you couldn't make him love that. That bunny is special and knowing it came from your dad...that"s just even better." I couldn't agree more!

So despite my attempts at an elephant named Elly....we as a family have come to adore Bunny...a stinky, brown bunny with loads of personality. We are also pretty fond of the stinker that carries it around!