Out of the blue, Linnea started asking a big question this week. It began with a shiny new pacifier.
“My purple boppy, mommy,” she said, handling it with loving care as we rocked together before bed. “Who bought it me?”
After I replied that mommy bought the boppy, her eyes got bigger and she nodded knowingly, like wow, that is really important information. Ever since, she has conducted research on all of her must-have items. It’s who bought her carseat? Polka dot blanket? “Party shoes” (black patent leather mary janes)? Crib? And the sad thing is, I can’t always remember. I don’t recall, for example, who bought that now-favorite plush polka dot blanket.
Last night at bedtime, she wanted to see a teddy bear that was hanging out in the dolly cradle. “Who bought it me?” she asked. And I tried to explain that “Big Teddy” was Mommy’s when she was a little girl, and that one of Grandma Leslie’s girlfriends had bought it for me. She couldn’t comprehend the bear’s age, and neither could I—this big girl still remembers brushing that bear’s oatmeal-colored fur with my parents’ blue hairbrush.
As Josh and I make way for Baby #2, I’m going through the house, looking for unnecessary items that could be donated, recycled, or tossed. We have a small house, and as stuff comes in, other stuff must go out. But at the same time, I want to hang on to the right things—the Big Teddies in the sea of toys that Linnea has already accrued in her two years.
At a baby shower before Linnea was born, my mother-in-law, Rose, gave me a plush bunny that had belonged to my husband. Young Joshua had named it Rabbit James Wilhelm, and Rose had tied a nametag around its neck with a ribbon. Rabbit J. now has a choice spot in our daughter’s room, and to me, there’s nothing sweeter than that.
*****
I Want to Know
In a culture of clutter and copious consumption, how is one to know when to hang on and when to weed out?
As you look around your place, what do you see that was a special gift from someone else?
Do you have any keepsakes from when you were a baby?
The only item that accompanied me on all of my major life journeys, from Hawaii to college in Minnesota, from Minnesota to my first post-college apartment on 15th East Thomas, Capitol Hill, Seattle, from Seattle to a certain family’s basement in Northfield, Minnesota, from Minnesota to a postage stamp-sized utopian ski town in Colorado (in a two-door red Nissan Sentra), from Colorado back to Minnesota, onto Hawaii and then eventually to Hong Kong is my childhood bear, Smokey the Bear. I’ve often said that if I could have only one thing it would be my bear, crazy and pathetic as that is. Having moved around quite a bit, as you have as well Em, I think you come to realize that stuff means very little. Although now that I’m a bit older and I own some Le Creuset cookware I might want to take that with me as well…
And I’m not sure I could ever part with my college athletic sweatshirt… . And I suspect that piece of driftwood shaped like a dragon my dad gave me before leaving Hawaii for Hong Kong will always stay with me.
Interesting that Linnea is beginning to consider the concept of ownership and where and who things came from. Smart little cookie!
I love your little story. You and Smokey have been all over the world! I always admired your ability to have relatively few clothes but always look adorable (while it seems that most people just acquire a ton of pieces but none of it is spectacular). But I don’t know–maybe after this long in Hong Kong you’ve collected quite a few!
You’re right that in general, stuff means very little. I have very few household items left from my first apartment in D.C. Since we were always going to and having garage sales while I was growing up, I learned that most things can be replaced.
I think you’re right about the Le Creuset cookware! (and the banana sweats and the dragon)
My Winnie the Pooh teddy that mom got free from Sears or someplace when I was born. Also, my simple quilted blankie and the cabbage patch kid mom made from a kit. John has his blanke and the stocking that his mom made for Christmas. And his constructicon transformers.
I had a homemade cabbage patch kid when I was little, too, but I’m not sure what happened to it. Linnea just got one for her birthday–a 25th anniversary doll–because its name is Luella Linnea. How could we resist, right?
I love that John kept his construction transformers. Back in the day, I watched a lot of transformers cartoons (along w/ He-Man and all the other boy cartoons).
We have been in a similar mode of getting rid of things in preparation for the new baby. It is hard to know what to keep and what to get rid of. My mom stored so many of the dolls and stuffed animals I had as a kid that our 2-year-old has now inherited that she really has too many toys. I could probably take half a way and store them in the garage for 3 months and then rotate them in to keep the mix fresh…maybe I will do that.
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I know someone who does the toy rotation thing–that’s a great idea if you have room in your garage!
Such a sweet story! As for me, I get rid of stuff if I haven’t touched it in a year. Not everything, but most things. I’ll keep stuff that has good memories to it, of course, but try to keep as little as possible as my place isn’t very big either!
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You strike me as someone who keeps a pretty tidy place!