fly little boomerang then come home
how many of you out there are familiar with toot and puddle? if you don’t know of them, they are two pigs (with a show on nick jr & some books) who learn about different cultures. in each episode, toot goes on a trip and sometimes puddle joins him, but not usually. on each solo trip he has, toot sends a postcard to puddle about his adventures.
image from nick jr.
recently, i went on a 2-night business trip to colorado – solo. this is the fourth time in N’s four years that i’ve been away from her overnight, and the first time she’s had a great deal of separation anxiety about it. she was home with daddy the whole time, but she still felt insecure about not having mommy (who is usually attached at her hip) around. the night before i left, N drew this image.
"mommy flies to colorado"
i left little gifts for her to open each day while i was away. we texted pictures of our adventures back and forth to each other, talked on the phone, and even skyped on my iphone during my trip. when i returned, i learned that she had gotten really into sending “postcards” to puddle while i was away. she wrote quite a few, in fact. her dad reported that this became a game where they would hug and she (being toot) would say, “i have to go, bye bye!” then she would come back with the “postcard” and a gift (many seen below) and they would embrace and say their hellos again.
each postcard talked about a gift toot had gotten for puddle on his adventure. for example, the one below says, “dear puds, i got this gold from a leprechaun.” (puds is toot’s nickname for puddle.)
some others were: (my husband was awesome enough to jot down these translations as she created them while i was gone. thanks, sweetie!)
- “dear puds, i got you tickets to the north pole. do you like it? i thought it was fun.”
- “dear puddle, i found this rock on the ground.”
- “dear puddle, i found this clover on the grass.”
- “dear puds, i got this fish. do you want to eat it for dinner?”
- “dear puds, i got a slinky marching in a parade.”
- “dear puds, i got this trophy.”
- “dear puds, i got this egg from an easter bunny.”
- “dear puds, “i went bowling and got two turns with it. i miss you. your pal. toot.”
i love that N’s inner wisdom led her to this art activity, where she was rehearsing saying goodbye and knowing that when someone goes away, they come back. i wish i’d thought of playing some sort of toot & puddle make-believe before i left! leave it to kids to create their own medicine, right?
i love that each time toot and puddle say goodbye to each other before a trip, they say, ”a boomerang flies but always returns home where it belongs!”
!
