Toby's Farm Animals

Before we left for daycare this morning, Toby INSISTED on putting all of his farm animals into his toy farm. This is no easy task with the number of animals he has on the go -- he hadn’t yet realized that there weren’t enough stalls to accommodate all of them at one time, but thankfully he also (apparently) doesn’t yet realize that co-habitation of pigs and horses or cows and dogs aren’t a good idea.

And so the many animals that Toby owns were all nicely tucked away together in variously unique and inappropriate sleeping arrangements and off we were to day care.

Yeah, right. Not so fast.

“Animals sleeping. Mommy sing song?” he said quietly, still on his knees in front of his precious farm.

I suggested to him that maybe HE could sing them a good night song before we left.

“No.” he said definitively. I thought it might be sweet to hear him sing so I tried to convince him further, ”Oh, come on, Toby, sing a song to your animals. They’re all going to sleep and need to be tucked in…”

My tough boy would have none of that.

“No!”

I then suggested he sing another song. Maybe Old Macdonald had a farm?

“No.”

If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands?

“No.”

What about Jingle Bells? (Toby LOOOOOVES jingle bells…)

“No. Toby go to Daycare.”

And so up we got and walked over to the front door. But just as I turned and started to put on my boots, Toby’s empathetic side overpowered his manly exterior and he went racing back to his farm.

Thinking I couldn’t see him, Toby knelt down to the farm and whispered into the window in the softest whisper I’ve heard him use “Jingle bells jingle bells….night night animals…I love you”

I pretended not to notice and gave him an extra hard and manly pat on the back on the way out the door….and an extra big kiss, too.