The 4 year old is really into stuffed animals. She’s had her eye on my Raccoon, Charlie, lately.

Charlie has a place of honor on a closet shelf. He is faded, no more stripes on a tail that is hanging by a few threads. He’s been around since I was three….. longer than ANYONE in my house has been around me.

Yesterday I let her hold him, then introduce him to some of her stuffed friends.  They all hung out together on her bed, and she slept with him at night.

Tonight he was back on his shelf, and she went looking for him. Then comes her awesome idea.

“Hey mom! Can I keep Charlie?”

Uh, no.  You guys can hang out though.

Soon after….

“Mom…..look at my face.”

So I look.  Into the face hovering inches from mine, eyes suitably wide and bottom lip pushed out. Just staring at me.

I turn away.

A minute later, “did you see my lip?”

Yes. I saw the lip.

Now it’s quivering as she launches into a tale of woe, about a mother who doesn’t love her enough to give Charlie up. Because she promises to take good care of him, and she wants him, so what’s the problem?

So I ask her, what should I do if I’m out with you one day, and a lady comes up and says she really likes you and wants to take you for her own daughter? Should I get to keep you, or should I give you away even if I still want to keep you for myself?

“Well”, she answers….”she can just come home and live with us!” with a very self congratulatory smile on her face.

So, now Charlie has two moms.