a little boy's best friend

Meet Marley... he is a rather collectible Rastafarian lion that has been hanging out with my Grateful Dead bears for years. Most recently, he was livin' solo in my bookcase. Carefully perched out of harm's way, he observed the comings and goings of our daily lives.

Somehow he escaped harm from my children during their grab everything and eat it years.

So as we were embarking on our first day at our new day care, I told my little Coozer that he could take Marley to school as Marley is a lion and he will protect him. I had no idea that Marley was going to somehow weave his way into Coozer's every day life. Every morning he goes to daycare with Coozer and gets placed in the cubbie until naptime. Then they nap and he is placed back in the cubbie. The he rides home in the car and hangs out somewhere until bedtime. That is when calls for Mawlley begin. So now Coozer will only sleep with his protective friend and puppy.

Yesterday I was 30 minutes late for work. On the way out of the house, I asked my 9yo, "does Coozer have Marley?" "yeah!" So we embark.

We bolt out of the driveway at 6:15 and head to the elementary school and drop off the 9yo by 6:25.

Then off to the middle school... then I hear "where's Marley?" from the backseat. I cringe and tell myself I didn't hear anything. Just keep going!

So at the Middle School at 6:40 and dropped off my 10yo. Ok. Phew.

As Coozer and I are getting back in the car, he starts his pleas for Marley. I tried to appease him with every toy I could find in the car. No luck. I tried to talk him out of needing him. No luck.

Then I turned right and headed back to the house. Got the sleepy lion out of Coozer's bed and bolted out of the driveway again at 7:00. I was quietly cursing the traffic that has now doubled and then I listened to the happy chatter in the backseat. So I decided to throw all caution to the wind and dialed in to my 7:15 conference call while still on our way to day care.

The call participants got to hear me speak with conviction and "FIRE TRUCK! Mama, fire truck! FIRE TRUCK!" in the background.

Then "Caboose! We went past the caboose!"

"Oh look! the broken road! The excavator is working Mama!" and then the call ended.

I smiled to myself, and wondered why I worried about being late. I had a great adventure on my way to work and so did my 3yo liontamer!