Sweatshirt

Elijah's pre-school teachers asked the parents to bring in a picture of their child with something or someone they are thankful for. The children are learning the concept of being thankful and the picture will be used as an aid since it's not an easy concept for 3 year olds to grasp.

We spent a few days trying to decide what/who should be on that picture. Mommy and Daddy? Grandparents? The bunk beds? The book "Mouse Soup"? They were all plausible candidates, but in the end, Sweatshirt won. Yes, Sweatshirt is now a proper name and is therefore capitalized and used without an article. It (often referred to as "he" in English and "she" in Russian - Russian nouns are gendered) continues to be a constant companion in times of trouble, a soothing friend, and a compliant playmate. It is so important in Elijah's life, that Sweatshirt is not allowed to ever leave the house for fear of being lost. I shudder to think what would happen then.

But what do you do when you best friend can't go with you everywhere? Well, you get other friends. Elijah has two other sweatshirts that are allowed to travel with him. One goes to church with us, and the other is used for overnight trips.

Sweatshirt has multiple nicknames. Some of them are sometimes applied to the two substitues, but most are reserved for the real thing. Here they are, in the order of preference and usage frequency: Ney, Gofe (a take off on the Russian word "kofta"), Wha-ha (Sweatshirt's first name dating back to when Elijah just started to talk) and Si (I couldn't tell you where this one came from).

The picture you see here is the one that was taken to pre-school today: Elijah and his best friend Sweatshirt relaxing on a red bean bag.