Colonel, the snake....or make that Kernel

Gage has an aversion to ALL stuffed animals, except his Lovies and Elmo.  (Gage really has an aversion to EVERYTHING lately, but that's a different post.)  In any case, he loves to point and name Elmo, Cookie Monster, Big Bird, Abby, etc. every time we see their cute little stuffed faces in a store, but if I so much as pick up the creature, he begins to incessantly say 'No, No, NO, NO' louder and louder until I put it back and we move on.  He also likes to point out other stuffed animals, at the library or such....'oppisant' (elephant), 'dog', 'bear', 'camel', but again if that thing gets one centimeter cloer to him he freaks out.  Fair enough.  I mean some stuffed animals are pretty creepy.  AND one less thing we have to buy him, or so we thought.

Last Sunday when we were in the mall, we went into the toy store with all the Elmos, Abbys, etc. and we proceeded as normal, he named them, pointed, I touched them, he screamed.  In the back of the store there were stuffed snakes, which for some reason I have always wanted to get one for Gage- we see them each time we go to the zoo and he used to not be scared of such.  So of course, Luke being Luke said look Gage snake and proceeded to pick one up and shove it in Gage's face.  I tried to stop him, because I knew of the fit that would follow, but instead Gage reached out and grabbed on to the snake with his recent death grip and hugged that snake as close as he could while the tail spilled over his stroller on to the ground.  He kept saying 'cuddle, sneak' and proceeded to rub his face against the snake and snuggle him like his Lovie.  It was unbelievable.  How is he scared Sesame St. characters, stuffed bears, etc., but he loves a stuffed snake?!?!   Which by the way is a corn snake, hence the name Kernel.  Here are a few pictures of right after I bought Kernel.  Every night since he has cuddled with Kernel in his crib and sometimes dragged him around the house with his tail dragging behind.  Kids....

This picture doesn't do Kernel's length justice...

Sorry for the blurry Blackberry pics