In order to stall...

I can appreciate a young child's need for order. AJ used to line up all of his rubber ducks on the edge of the bathtub. Sydney insists on a particular seating order for all of her princess dolls. And several of the kids' books feature characters lining up their toys in a parade.

Never the less, I'm pretty suspicious about Sydney's latest obsession with lining up her stuffed toys. Why is it she only needs to inventory their where-abouts at bedtime?

The newest cast of characters that Sydney simply can't fall asleep without include:

•  "Bunny" - really a stuffed dog that's missing part of its nose thanks to a little too much affection from our real dog
• "Baby" - part teddy bear, part blanket; it's a toy Sydney ignored until I tried selling it last year at a garage sale
• Racoon - I have no clue where this critter came from
• Lambie - a baptism gift from the Bianchi's, Sydney found it last week and has carried it with her just about everywhere she goes.

Regular readers of this blog may be curious what happened to the little animals Sydney was so obsessed with earlier this month. What can I tell you? They were soooo last week. They were packed in a purse to accompany us on a trip to somewhere, and suddenly fell victim to "out of sight, out of mind syndrome."

The two constants through all of this have been Sydney's pink blanket, and her unicorn pillow pet. Everything else, I guess, is just a fad.