Travels in the South

Hello friends – welcome to the next series of Travels in the South.  This series starts with the arrival of Fozziemom and Fozziedad all the way from Australia.  Today we highlight how the mom’s encouraged the dad’s to go to a baby hospital.  Something was mentioned about biological clocks.  I’m not sure what that means.  So the field trip was scheduled and everyone gathered in the Jeep headed to Cleveland, Georgia.  Does that town ring a bell with you?  How about if I show you a picture of the hospital.

Now is that a hospital or what?  The moms were so totally excited upon seeing this place.  Personally I think it was because of all of the mountain streets that the GPS was directing everyone to travel.  And yes, it was so hidden away near the mountains that dad said he thought he heard banjo music playing.  But again I digress.

Welcome my friends to Babyland General Hospital – home of the Cabbage Patch Kids.  Now if you have been reading my blog for any length of time you will know that mom is not a huge fan of those kids.  In fact to refresh your memory, mom got one when she was a young teenager.  She completely hated it.  It might have been because mom was a tomboy.  It might have been because the freak had red hair and reminded her of Chucky.  It could have been just because.  But mom hated the freak of nature.

And upon getting fussed out repeatedly because she didn’t “play with it”, mom did just that one day.  It was a swift game of Indians and Cowboys with the red headed freak being tied to a tree and set on fire.  Don’t worry mom wasn’t hurt and the fire wasn’t huge… just big enough to take care of little Chuckette.

So knowing the story, you would think this would be the very last place mom would want to go for a visit.  But through conversations with Fozziemom, it just *had* to happen.  Strange huh?

When you pull up to the hospital, there are huge ceramic babies in cabbage leaves all along the front and sides of the building.  Some are boys and other girls.  Some have pacifiers while others don’t.  And look at this picture closely – do you see who showed up for the tour?  BASHFUL!  Can you believe that?

Now daddy said that there were more squeals coming from the girls than he had heard in a long time.  It wasn’t bad enough that the place looked huge from the outside but then you have all of these ‘babies’ sitting around the building.  Shaking my piggy head.  By this point, even mom was giving in to the hospital with anticipation and couldn’t wait to get inside of the hospital.

When you first enter, along the walls there are pictures of hundreds of celebrities who have autographed pictures to Xavier Roberts (the founder of Cabbage Patch Kids).  Also as you go further into the waiting room, there is a huge cabbage patch chair.  Oh don’t worry, everyone had to take a turn on the chair to get their pictures taken… you know for documentational purposes to prove they were there – yeah that’s it.

Now some people – snort oink – had a great time in that chair.  And mom and Fozziemom said the cabbage patch chair is way comfortable.

Of course the dad’s were forced to partake in picture time.  What?  You never know when you might be back and you want all of the picture opportunities you can get.

 

The hospital is set up in many sections.  The waiting room, the nursery, the baby room, the toddler room and then the delivery room.

♥

The nursery had babies that were so young in their cribs.  Of course Fozziemom couldn’t help but to gather one up and rock in the rocking chair that was so handy in the nursery.  Look that picture – doesn’t that show ❤ ?  And a cool thing about the nursery and baby rooms – there was crying.  Babies that actually were heard crying!  What an awesome delight that was.

And the baby room for toddlers – OMP!  Mom said they had the toddlers in cribs taking naps, in high chairs, in bouncy chairs, on changing tables and in strollers.  Can you imagine that?  And there wasn’t just a few – there at least 50-75 babies in these couple of rooms.  It was a hoot – and daddy said mom was overwhelmed.

After seeing these rooms, everyone had to go into the main room which also housed the delivery room.  On this day, we were five minutes late or we would have seen the birth of a baby.  Mom just kicks herself for missing that.

All over the main room there were hundreds of babies in different stages in their babyhood.  These babies were sprouting from their cabbage patch leaves.  Some of their heads would move.  In another section, some babies were in their leaves and their bodies would come up and down out of the leaves.  But these babies, they were ready to be born yet. The babies are pollinated by fanciful Bunnybees and taken care of by the licensed patch doctors and nurses.

Did I mention that the staff of the hospital are all dressed in nurse outfits?  Of course they are – why wouldn’t they be, right?  I mean it is a hospital – snorts with piggy laughter.

Dad – bless his heart – thought he was going to pass out when mom told him joyfully, “Honey, I want a baby!”  He made her promise that it wouldn’t end up like the first one she had.  After she promised, he let her loose to find her perfect baby.

So while Fozziemom and Fozziedad searched the hospital for their liking, mom took off to find her baby.  Dad says he thinks that mom held at least 80% of the babies talking to them to see if any of them with bond with her.  Just when she thought she was going to give up – she found her baby – Haley Bree.

And look at Haley Bree – with her pink glasses, pacifier and ballerina outfit that mom just had to buy for her baby – of course completed with tutu.  And yes, that is a baby diaper in the picture as well that mom bought.

So my friends, what has the Travels in the South taught you?  Putting together Fozziemom and mom, there will be trouble.  You can’t even guess how much trouble because we will get more into that next week.  But this day also teaches us that a mom can change her colors.  Once mom saw exactly where Cabbage Patch Kids came from, she *had* to have one.  Now, she has fond memories of their tour this day and all of the oohhing and aaahhing that mom and Fozziemom went through with all of the babies.

Join us next week my friends as we continue with our Travels in the South with Fozziemom and Fozziedad.

 

 

 

 

 

On the Road with Bashful!

BASHFUL – the rolling stone…

 

 

 

 

 

I hope that everyone has been enjoying my postings on my field trip to Wally World.  I have a few more experiences to share with you on my field trip.  This Wally World (or Walmart to some) is a neat and huge place with lots of places for a rolling stone like me to hide and play. 

I admit that I did get in trouble a couple of times and mom/dad had to put me back in the buggy for a little time out.  You know the rules at the Hotel Thompson – “You do the crime, you pay the time”.  I just couldn’t help it though – I was so excited.  It was all that I could do to stay inside of the buggy and not jump around. 

Mom/dad told me that Wally World had a ‘toy’ section.  I didn’t know what that was at first.  But afterwards, oh clickety clack snap – that is Fun Town USA inside of Wally World.  I thought I would share today on my field trip in the Fun Town USA – the toy department at Wally World 🙂

 First off, I got to meet some girls.  And let me add, these are just not ‘any’ girls.  These are Disney girls – hubba hubba – Ariel, Snow White, Rapunzel and Tiana.  They all welcomed this little rock in their little gang hanging out on the top shelf so everyone could see them.  Look closely – you can see me at Snow’s feet.  Don’t let their innocent looks fool you.  They were flirting with me left and right wanting me to take them home.  Mom said no that I was too young to date.  Darn, maybe later girls.

That led us down the next aisle where I got to meet what they called a Cabbage Patch baby.  See, on top of the box there – that little Cabbage Patch baby threw me on top of her box.  She thought I could talk mommy into bringing her home as well.  It didn’t work.  She didn’t know that mommy is *not* a Cabbage Patch kind of girl.  In fact, mommy told me a story that made laugh so hard that I was passing pebbles.  Come close and I’ll tell you.  Closer – I don’t want her hearing me. 

She said that when she was little she was a ‘tomboy’.  I wasn’t sure what that was – I thought it was just a boy named Tom – but mom set me straight.  She said it was a term used for girls who liked to do boy stuff, like ride bikes, climb trees, play Cowboy and Indians and such.  Well, mommy didn’t like dolls at that stage in her life – she wanted to run with the boys. 

Cabbage Patch dolls came out in the 1980’s and were a HUGE hit.  Mom was turning 11 that year and her mother – of all things possible in the world – got mom a red haired Cabbage Patch doll – eeww puke is what mom said – LOL.   It looked very similar to this picture of a Cabbage Patch Doll.  When I say she hated that doll, it would be an understatement.  Mom threw gently placed it in her room. 

Weeks passed and her mother was kind of upset that she was not playing with said expensive Cabbage Patch doll.  I mean afterall, it was a toy.  Mom’s mother nagged and nagged and nagged – asked her when she was going to play with the beautiful doll.  Until one day, mom thought sure let’s play with the Cabbage Patch doll with a wicked look on her face.  Uh – oh, this can’t turn out good, right?

So mom took the evil little Cabbage Patch doll out in the back yard to play.  She was out for a very long time in the back yard before she came back inside of the house.  Her mother was cooking dinner and looked out the back window and saw smoke.  She didn’t know what it was and asked mom about it.  Mom told her it wasn’t important.  Hey, there’s smoke out there – it has to be important, right?  So mom’s mother took her outside to investigate the smoke.

That’s when they found it.  I say it because you see mom never named that Cabbage Patch doll.  And, don’t think that mom was a pyromaniac or anything – she wasn’t.  You see the story was that mom was playing Cowboys and Indians.  She was a Cowboy and you guessed it – that Cabbage Patch doll was an Indian.   The “Indian”… AKA Cabbage Patch doll… got tied up to a tree because it wouldn’t say uncle – rolls rocks eyes.  Since it wouldn’t give in, mom set it on fire.  End of Cabbage Patch doll – laughing.

Well, I hope you enjoyed today’s posting on my field trip and story about mom from childhood.  I’ll be back soon with some more On the Road with Bashful… the rolling stone soon!

Toodles – Bashful