Moosie & Manna

When I first started blogging - back when Rachael was just a few months old - I did so with the intention of documenting all of the little, mundane things that were so cute, so important as they happened, but that I knew I'd be likely to forget someday. Back then, it seemed simply unthinkable that any of these things could possibly escape my mind, ever. Unfortunately, I've learned...other things creep in and take their places. New things, bigger things, seven-year-old things as opposed to two-year-old things. I hate to wonder what I might have forgotten...I want to keep it all.

One thing that just popped into my mind - and I have no idea why, it being past 1 a.m. and my having been sitting on the couch engrossed in a book that had nothing to do with any of this - was the imaginary family that Rachael created when she was about three. They came and went, they weren't constant companions, and it was always fun when they surfaced for a little while. And then one day...they stopped coming.

Their names were Moosie and Manna. They were tiny little people (were they people?) wearing elephant costumes. I'm not sure she ever declared the color of the costumes, but I'm thinking they were white. Moosie and Manna had a baby of indeterminate gender who was never named. I imagine it was even smaller and wearing an impossibly tiny elephant costume of its own.

Moosie and Manna most frequently appeared during car rides. They were incorrigible little things, forever jumping out of the van and necessitating the quick lowering of windows and yelling at them to "RUN! HURRY! GET BACK IN!" I managed to never lose any of them, but then, I don't know how they got out of the van in the first place.

They showed up during bath time once, and I decided to question her about them. That was the day that I learned that their last name was Toiletpaper - this decided after a quick glance around the bathroom that almost certainly landed on the toilet paper roll across from the bathtub, and followed by a rather extreme case of the giggles.

I may have to ask Rachael about Moosie and Manna tomorrow. I wonder if she remembers them? If not, I'm sure she'll want to hear all about them...and I wouldn't be surprised if that leads to their resurrection. I do miss them terribly. I'd love to see them again.