close encounters of the stuffed animal kind

Recently, Holden has grown quite attached to his expanding cadre of stuffed animal friends. He has some at daycare, some in his room upstairs, and some in our living room (and probably one or two in the car, too). When I was a kid, I loved stuffed animals, so I love encouraging his attachment to his little plush friends. And, it turns out that it can be very beneficial to a toddler's development to play with stuffed animals, as it can help them develop important social and emotional skills through role playing and pretend play. During nap time at daycare, Holden often gathers his stuffed animals (esp. Dog, who we'll have to feature in a future blog post) and has a party at his cot. His favorite animal rotates among the group (which is good ... prevents jealous rivalries from rising up within the crew).

For quite some time, his hands-down favorite stuffed animal was Terry the Pterodactyl. When Holden would wake up in the morning, he would reach out for his little psychedelic buddy, squeezing him and holding on to him during diaper changes. He still loves Terry, but Holden has learned to share the love with all of his animal friends.

So I simply wanted to introduce some of Holden's plush posse:





Reintroducing Terry the Pterodactyl
(quite the party animal)









Chuckanucka
(Holden now has more teeth than he does)










Teddy the Bear
(this was my stuffed animal when I was a kid)










Black Bear
(we picked this up for Holden during our trip to Tennessee)







[not pictured here] There's also Rosie the Bear, Peaco (another Ugly Doll), the aforementioned Dog, an unnamed blue bear that used to play lullaby music, and an array of smaller plush toys like some tiny bears and a little dog that barks when you squeeze it. I'm sure I'm forgetting someone, and for that I apologize -- but we'll have to introduce more of Holden's furry friends in a follow-up post.