Heeeeere's Johnny!

Just about every kid has a favorite toy. A lovey, something they are ridiculously attached to. Sometimes it's a blanket they've had since they were a baby. Sometimes it's a stuffed animal, or a doll, or an action figure.

For us, it's Johnny.

Johnny is a tiny two-inch tall farmer who made his way into our home via Craigslist. I purchased a Fisher Price treehouse for Lainey last year, and I found Johnny sadly crammed into the top compartment. He is little, that is for sure, but an officially licensed "Little People" toy he is not - so his reason for living in the treehouse is unknown. However, they say everything happens for a reason and obviously that is the case here.

One day a few months back, Lainey found this little farmer in the very bottom of the toy bin. She snatched him up with enthusiasm and ran over to me with as much excitement as if she had found an entire slice of birthday cake in there. She held up the plastic toy triumphy and exclaimed "Look Mommy - it's JOHNNY!"

Lainey has never known or met anyone who goes by the name of Johnny, and I cannot clearly recall the name ever coming up on any of the Nick Jr. shows she watches, so where she came up with that is beyond me. But from that day forth, Johnny had become a full-fledged member of our household. He has been discovered in every room of the house - even on the kitchen counter once, which leads me to believe that he is really another version of the Chuckie doll, except with a hankerin' for Fig Newtons.

Each time we play with blocks, it is imperitive that we first build a castle for Johnny. She even brings him over and sets him in the doorway, which is either to help me judge the correct sizing or because he does not trust me with the construction of his new digs. Sometimes he sits at the dinner table, staring at us with that surprised look and his hand in the air as if to say "Yes, I'll take seconds please." Once I even found him sitting alone in the dining room, face and arm smeared with peanut butter.

Yet another time I found him in the bathtub, which either means that his farmering duties had left him in desperate need for a cleaning or he was investigating the spider that I had sent down the drain earlier.

More times than I can count, I've found him under the massive load that is my cat Aja, who would prefer to sit on things that any other living being would find amazingly uncomfortable. Yet there Johnny lay, under the rolls of black fur, arm outstretched in hopes that his best friend Lainey will soon rescue him.

Eventually I know the day will come when Johnny takes a backseat to more important things, such as boys and beating up on Owen. But until then, I suppose I should embrace this new member of our family. But I'm still keeping an eye on the Fig Newtons, just in case....