When The KingofHearts and I first married, we lived in military housing on an army base. Once, a friend of mine came to visit and described the whole neighborhood as "Leave it to Beaver meets The Twilight Zone." I've never heard a more apt description of that area.

Our next door neighbors were a Captain and his chain smoking wife who had a little girl a little older than the age that The Caterpillar is now. One day when we were over there visiting, the little girl fell, or hit her head, or something, and started yelling, "Boo Boo Bunny! I need Boo Boo Bunny!" The mom calmly walked over to the freezer and produced a little bunny-shaped toy which had a small, re-freezable ice cube inside it. The little girl applied it to whatever hurt and the tears immediately ended. I'd never seen one before and marveled at this work of genius.

You can bet when I learned I was pregnant for the first time, that's the first thing I purposefully bought for myself at the Baby Superstore (and yes, we actually had a business in town called The Baby Superstore).

We have two Boo Boo Bunnies now. One looks like this and you can put an actual piece of ice in it. The other one is a little more huggable and pliable and therefore more popular with my kids:


Boo Boo Bunny should be awarded an honorary medical degree as he has nursed these girls through fever, bumps on the head, sore knees, growing pains and otherwise imagined aches that they think they suffer, but really just made up for attention. The only thing more worth it's price in the house is the bottle of honey that doubles as "medicine" when one of them decides they simply can't go on living with their imagined disease without some kind of medical intervention.

The scene usually goes something like this:
  • Caterpillar picks up toy piggy bank and hits self in forehead with it.
  • Tears ensure.
  • Momma spreads out arms and says, "Oh you poor Poor. Come and get a hug."
  • Crying Caterpillar walks over and is showered with hugs and kisses and an occasional, "I told you so" (because Momma has no self control and simply cannot leave it unsaid).
  • Caterpillar becomes completely agitated and begins repeating unintelligible words like, "Bah, shue, swhbah" and pointing at kitchen.
  • Momma has no clue what the heck she's trying to communicate.
  • Finally, Caterpillar gets tired of the whole Momma Doesn't Understand Her Language Schtick.
  • Caterpillar gets up from chair, grabs Momma's hand and pulls.
  • Momma reluctantly gets up out of chair and is led to kitchen; finds self standing directly in front of fridge.
  • Caterpillar points to freezer.
  • Momma finally gets a clue and says, "Oh! Do you want Boo Boo Bunny?"
  • Caterpillar does Excited Dance and prances feet in agreement.
  • Momma feels like idiot.
  • Momma produces Boo Boo Bunny from freezer; amazed that she did not think of it before.
  • Tears have been stopped now for at least ten minutes but Boo Boo Bunny is handed over anyway.


See? Boo Boo Bunny makes it all better. (By the way, it was the other side of her forehead that she hurt.)