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"Um Ick"

By Jess
Alex has been recently fascinated by stickers. Slow to reorganize my office, my sticker stash -- until very recently -- was at home in a chest of drawers easily accessed by a curious toddler. Thankfully, he can't pull the stickers off by himself! I saw no harm in giving him a sticker the day he discovered them; it was a small price to pay to work uninterrupted for a few more minutes. I was somehow surprised that it was such a hit.

I've since moved all my "good" stickers out of reach, but left the freebie stickers from various magazine offers there. I have several sheets of Disney characters, and even though Alex has never seen a Disney production he recognizes Mickey Mouse and likes the fact that there are ducks. I usually let him pick one out to put on his shirt.

The other day, he chose Jiminy Cricket. He was lost for a while but Alex found him today and kept repeating "Um. Ick," which I took to mean something-sticker. So I kept replying "Yes, it's a sticker," until I realized that we were in a circular conversation. Paying closer attention, he was looking very intently at the sticker and pointing to it when he spoke, so I ventured, "Jiminy Cricket?" and he said "Yes!" the way he does. I remembered that he had been playing with a plush Jiminy Cricket at my parents' house last weekend, so apparently he made quite an impression.

Alex held on to little Jiminy, all wadded up, his adhesiveness now a vague memory, all the while we got ready for naptime. Jiminy even picked out a book to be read to him, and he was still crumpled up in Alex's hand when I laid him down.

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