The . . . Thing?

I don't know what it is about our family or our kids, but sometimes it seems like everything is named "thing" in our home.

-"the brand new thing" - a flash browser that has games for kids that doesn't work half the time and which is not anywhere near new anymore, yet is still referred to as new.

-"the secret thing" - every night when we put the kids to sleep we whisper in their ears a relaxation thing where we have them visualize a pleasant dream, be it a tea party with fairies and unicorns or rescuing animals with Diego and Alyssia. I guess because it is whispered and quiet, it is a secret.

-"the hot thing" - Nathan's younger brother made us a corn sack for Christmas. He knitted it because Buckner boys are talented like that. Anyway, Jeremy has fallen in love with it and sleeps with it every night. In fact, I am positive that the corn sack is what will teach him to fall asleep in his own bed because he rarely gets out now after we have put him to bed. Anyway, Jeremy calls it his "hot thing." Megan has a long rice sack that I made her about a year ago when she got a crick in her neck, so she has a "hot thing," too and because Jeremy sleeps with his, she has to sleep with hers.

-and just for fun, once when we were driving in southern Arizona we saw signs all over the place for "The . . . . Thing?" We never stopped to see what exactly the Thing was. Probably a rest stop with cheap magnets and t-shirts.