Toy Stories: The Caterpillar of Abandonment

Days of Our Lives. All My Children. One Life to Live. Growing up, I can't remember being home on a week day without one of of these shows playing in the background.  Sure, I rolled my eyes and  groaned, but pretty soon my cries of "there's nothing on TV!" turned into a loud hiss of "SSH! I'm watching my stories!"  Ah, the transformation was complete.

Then came The Daytime TV Reckoning of 2011, and even though I keep the TV off during the day, something feels wrong...  It's quiet where someone would have otherwise been accusing their husband of sleeping with their best friend, who we all know is actually her long lost sister believed to have died in an ice skating accident 10 years earlier, freshly awakened from a coma and who believes herself to be pre-tongue Miley Cyrus.  Sigh.

Well friends, imaginative play is not just for children.  So, when today, after an intense round of peekaboo with Caterpillar, Baby picked up both Caterpillar and Pink Elephant and started shaking them at each other and babbling emphatically, I turned on the Soap Opera filter and soaked it up.

Elephant: HOW COULD YOU DO THAT?
Caterpillar: DO WHAT?
Elephant: JUST... LEAVE ME HERE WITH THE BABY!?
Caterpillar: I DIDN'T LEAVE. IT WAS JUST A GAME. WE WERE PLAYING PEEKABOO.

Elephant: EVERYTHING IS A GAME TO YOU, CATERPILLAR!

Caterpillar: WELL I AM A TOY, ELEPHANT. WE ARE BOTH JUST TOYS.

Elephant: IT'S ONE EXCUSE AFTER ANOTHER WITH YOU.

Caterpillar: OH, JUST FORGET IT AND LET'S MOVE ON.
Elephant: AN ELEPHANT NEVER FORGETS!!

and scene.