came to me when i was maybe 7 or 8 from my dad's parents, Grammie and Paw. he was from sea world. i remember standing in their kitchen and i had a choice between an alice in wonderland tea set and Stanley. i chose stanley. (incidentally, i was given the tea set at the next christmas holiday so i ended up with both. and i really loved tea sets, i have no idea while i chose stanley and i almost regretted it at first). so there is this great photo of me and my cousin mary beth sitting on Paw's lap and resting on his chest and stomach and stanley is there with us. if i had that photo here i'd scan it for the blog, but it's at my parents house.
Stanley kind of hung out for a while. then when i was in 10th grade he came to camp with me when the other girl who was a counselor-in-training with me brought her stuffed animal. sometime in that few weeks i came up with the name 'stanley' while i was resting on my cot. i think it may be a throwback to the stuffed bear in 'the hunt for the red october' which i was slightly obsessed with at that point. (?)
and ever since camp, stanley has been the go to guy. he went to college. he survived flying across the room whenever my boyfriend saw fit (mean right?) he also survived attack by one roommate's cat who took his mouth apart. and he got to be friends with bear (my college roommate, karen's, stuffed lion). probably in college i discovered stanley is good for kissing goodnight right on his nose AND he sleeps perfectly in the crook of my arm right by my heart. he also makes a nice neck pillow while reading.
so when max and i met stanley was my constant bed companion, putting me to sleep every night. and it wasn't so bad to have max come over just that stanley had to sleep on the bedside table. but max and i knew we were meant for each other when among the many many similarities we found ... .. we discovered the sealy stanley connection. max grew up loving stuffed animals and baby harp seals. so he had his very own stuffed white baby seal: Sealy. i got to meet sealy (and wally and the others) when i went to visit his parents house the first summer after we started dating. VERY CUTE.
now that we're married, stanley lives in the closet with the baby afghan Grammie crochetted for me and only comes out when max is away. but he definitely comes out and keeps me company. that's probably why he has some peanut butter on his forehead.
stanley is also a world traveller. along with going to college in fredericksburg, stanley also went to graduate school in philadelphia. more recently he saw hawaii in summer 2004 and bali in summer 2007. (he was not invited to rome however) i'm sure he's got plenty more trips in him....
Here's Stanley in the Lei after arrival from Hawaii
Lounging on the beach at Wimea Bay in Hawaii
In the bed in Bali. he didn't see much of the countryside, but he did make an appearance going through security in the Denpasar, Indonesia and Guam Airports (did he smuggle drugs???)
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