It's all in the stuffing.

If you had a chance to design something from the beginning, like a stuffed toy, surely it would have those special qualities that a four-year-old would want. What special feature would it have?

This morning I called my grandson, Nathan to wish him a happy birthday. By the sound of his voice he was overjoyed. It's great that they have speaker phones, which allowed him to run upstairs to get his new friend, Brownie, while I spoke with my son, Bill. I introduced myself to Brownie, as if Grandma could see him, just as Nathan expected that I would. And, I told him that I was looking forward to meeting him. Of course, he has a new dog house which he placed next to his bed.

It seems yesterday was spent celebrating Nathan's fourth birthday with special treats like developing "Brownie" as one of his presents. It is a clever idea, which involved the whole family in making "his" B'day extra special. While he was retrieving "Brownie," which Nathan told me all about, and Bill repeated for clarification, I thought "what a wonderful idea and way to teach children about feelings".

The store allows you to pick your own stuffed animal, and, then they stuff it in front of you, inserting the heart, (which Nate picked out) right in front of him. (How would you know that we have a heart unless you see it go in)? And now that this special dogie, "Brownie" has a heart, he has feelings, just like we do. That means, he can love you back. What an idea. Wonder who thought of that?