I am the Editorial Assistant for The Fort Scott Tribune, where I have been employed since March of 2008. I live in the country near Mapleton, Kan., with my husband and our two children. I graduated from Uniontown High School, Uniontown, Kan., but before attending Uniontown, I moved around several times during my childhood. I love to take photos, write, read and spend time with my family. I am also a member of our local fire department and enjoy attending church with my family and appreciate everything a small town has to offer. I look forward to watching my children grow and spending time with my husband and family while living in the country.

Animal Invasions of the plastic kind

Posted Thursday, January 8, 2009, at 4:44 PM

Life with an (almost) 2 year old never gets boring. Ever. Christmas was great, my house still hasn't quite recovered, but we had a wonderful time and our kids really got spoiled. All the grandparents made sure of that.

Since Christmas, however, we have been feeding, bathing and caring for approximately 15 plastic animals, like they were the real thing. At first, I thought it was kind of cute that he wanted to take care of all of his "Nanimals!" but lately, I'm getting a little tired of sharing my bathroom space with a box of plastic animals. I'm also tired of trying to find something suitable to feed to all the plastic animals. Plus, every time he wants his Hippo and he can't find it he screams "Ippo, Ippo" until I find it. Most of the time his animals are scattered all around, a few on the floor, a few in his bed and of course, maybe one or two actually make it into the toy box -- you know the place where they actually belong.

The other night, I was trying to give him a bath before bed time and he didn't want to take a bath. I was trying every trick I could think of to get him into the tub. Finally, he told me his animals were dirty and needed to be cleaned. After thinking to myself, I decided it was absolutely perfect, I could get him to take a bath simply by letting him take a *few* (few being the key word) animals into the bath with him. Perfect solution right? It would solve two problems in one step and I'm all about multi-tasking. He would get the bath he needed and he could clean his animals. Problem solved -- or so I thought.

At that time, I didn't realize that this would become a tradition and that now, in order to get my son to take a bath, I would have to allow him to drag every plastic animal into the tub with him. That, along with the fact that they each need to be washed too.

I love the fact that he is so concerned with the needs of his animals, but I am a little tired of the endless array of plastic animals scattered across my floor. I feel like I'm the owner of the Plastic Animal Humane Society. My house is being invaded, by plastic animals.

I guess I should be happy. At least he's learning to take care of something, never mind the fact that their plastic and he can't technically harm them. Plus, they amuse him for hours and it's probably the least dangerous thing he can do. Does anyone know if bathing plastic animals kills germs?

I think I'll be ok, as long as he doesn't start naming them.