A Girl and Her Whale

There's a rule at school -- don't bring your toys. Well...yesterday, little Ms. 3 took her latest favorite toy -- a blue plastic whale -- to school. A little boy took it from her, she forgot it when we went home, and all night and all the next morning....she was sad about the whale. We may need another one of these, but it doesn't seem to have any sort of recognizable brand...just a nice size and weight, smooth curves, fitting perfectly into her preschool hand. It reminds me of the whelkies that Nathan Lowell writes about in his 'Golden Age of the Solar Clipper' series (Quarter Share, Half Share, Full Share, Double Share, Captain's Share, Owner's Share) -- I first discovered it as a podiobook, but it also exists as a regular book as well. Mr. Room Mother found the stories engaging but he couldn't follow the audiobook format as well as he wanted to, so he bought the ebook. I *heart* new media, don't you? At any rate, this is not about the Solar Clipper series or podiobooks (although free audiobooks are a nice thing that everyone ought to know about).

Whelkies, in the Solar Clipper series, are little hand-carved totems which provide a sort of comfort and strength to their owners, matching their spirit in some way. I'm not sure what it means that my child's whelkie is a dolphin which she calls a whale, but her attachment to this cute little toy is very sweet to see. I hope if we recognize it as important but don't emphasize it excessively we'll avoid a power struggle or obsession...she's never been one to need a pacifier, or carry around a blanket, or drag a stuffed animal with her everywhere, so this relationship is new territory. I think we picked it up at a rummage sale along with some Fisher-Price animals, but it's not a Fisher-Price animal as far as I can tell. She lost it at CVS for a while a few weeks back...we combed the store and recovered it....but then the story pauses. It must have been floating around the house or the van for a while before resurfacing in her affections. And now it's gone to preschool, been taken and recovered and left over night. Lots of adventures for a little blue bit of smooth, hard plastic.

The whale came home. I hope it stays home! Does your little one have a whelkie?