Bug,  crazy stuff

Meet Sluggie Sluggers.

Short name Sluggie. Long name Sluggers.

kissing Sluggy

Yesterday we ran some errands with Toby and stopped by a couple of bait and tackle shops looking for a tangle-proof fishing pole for Bug. The only problem with bait and tackle shops around here is that they are filled with everything you need to go salt-water fishing and they hardly have anything you can use on a lake or a stream. We didn’t know this until we’d stopped into a couple and found ourselves bedazzled by the myriad of funny rubber fishing lures there are out there.

There are thousands of them! Every color, shape and size. Banana slug? Check. Purple glitter with bubbles? Check. Something that looks just like a squid? Check. They had everything. I have no idea how one fishes with these rubber lure thingies but Bug and I were quite fascinated. I think I might buy a bunch of them and make them into a mobile or something someday for an Alpha+Mom craft. What? It would be totally cute in a boy’s room.

Anyway, Bug fell in love with a sparkly gray and silver one. (Not green!) She named him Sluggy Sluggers and let him sit on her arm like a pet slug. Toby asked one of the employees how much the lure cost and the employee gave it to Bug for free. Cute gets you all kinds of perks, let me tell you. That kid is so spoiled by strangers. It turns out lures like Sluggie only cost 59 cents or something so it’s not that big of a deal but don’t tell Bug that. She walked around with Sluggie all that day and the next.

petting Sluggy

We took him to the park. He didn’t really like the slide.

Sluggy doesn't slide very well

He’s very sticky and will stick to horizontal surfaces for a few seconds. Bug thinks he’s the greatest pet ever. He can live in her cup holder. Have I told you about her cup holder? Probably not.

A while back we got Bug a new car seat. Her old one was a hand-me-down and I thought it was perfectly good until somebody explained to me that safety standards change, and there’s a rumor out there that the plastic on out-of-date car seats can splinter and break like old bicycle helmets if you get into an accident. Here I thought the expiration-date thing was just a hoax to get you to shell out more bucks to the car seat industry and fill up the landfills but I guess they do have a reason to expire after all. So I drove around with a guilty conscience for a week and then finally broke down and bought a new one.

Turns out her new car seat is Ultra-American and comes with a super-sized big gulp cup holder. You know, for all those big gulp slushies we let our kids drink these days. Whatever. I hate that stupid cup holder.

The cup holder is on the right side of her seat and her seat is on the right side of our car (so I can reach her from the driver’s seat and hand her the %$#@ pah when it drops on the floor). Also, remember that our car is small. We don’t have a great big airy mini-van with lots of head space. The doors are small and compact and even a normal-sized person needs to tuck themselves into the car carefully. This has never bothered me.

However her car seat was not designed for such a small car. Every time I put her in and out of her car seat I have to carefully lift her up and over the giant hulking cup holder. Or I have to wait five-hundred million years for her to climb in herself OR I accidentally bang her head on the roof of my car as I’m lifting her over OR I accidentally scrape her leg on the cup holder. Whichever one happens, it is a major major production that usually involves tears. STUPID STUPID STUPID cup holder.

Long story short: Bug LOVES her cup holder. Not for drinks but for her imaginary pet lizard. Every time we drive anywhere she tells me all about the habitat she has created for him. He has water and some rocks and even a flower to rest his head on for a pillow. Then she begs me for a real lizard and we spend hours arguing about how a real lizard couldn’t live in the car because he would DIE of heat exposure. It’s a subject I’m a bit weary of.

poor Sluggy

So if Sluggie wants to live in her cup holder that’s fine with me. I just hope he doesn’t melt. Not that I should worry, Sluggie doesn’t stay in the car. He comes in the house. He eats next to her. He takes a bath. He really loves bathtime because his skin “is just like Shamu.” He even sleeps with her on a little pink blanket folded up.

Squeezing Sluggy

Who needs Build-A-Bear? Give your kid a squishy fishing lure.

18 Comments

  • Jennifer

    My older daughter LOVES those kinds of lures and won’t fish with anything else–but of course she never catches anything, which she’s totally fine with. But she also loves to play with them. I thought we were the only ones who had that kind of play toy in our arsenal! I just LOVE that Bug has a fishing lure for a pet–totally awesome! What an imaginative, creative little kiddo you’ve got…so cute!

  • nicole

    funny and sweet all rolled into one. delsie caught her first fish last year when we went camping…tell Toby it was on a barbie fishing rod with power bait…we ate it for dinner tasty trout!

  • BeachMama

    Love it! I once bought J a bag of teeny pom poms from Walmarts for $1. The best fun he had for a month. No joke. They were bombs, bullets, balls, placeholders and when his cousin came over she pretended they were candy she was giving away. All that fun for only a buck.

  • Clover

    Cheap (or free!) toys are the best! And your aside about having to reach the pacifier– I HATE going on a trip when my daughter drops the pacifier 3200 times!

  • Lady in a Smalltown

    Hello pacifier strap! I have been making them for my son. You can find supplies and directions at Etsy or just buy some at Etsy. I use ribbon, little girl hair elastics and alligator clips. I also bought a grommet punch, but you can sew them too.

    When I was younger my parents ordered business supplies from a company called Forms & Worms. I got all the rubber worms. It was so awesome.

  • Sonja

    This is the best post ever. The picture on the slide? Oh, ouch, my sides! I laughed so hard… I love your kid. She’s awesome.

  • Kuky

    They have tangle proof fishing poles?? Wish we had known that. We got Isabelle a fishing pole and oh the pain of having to untangle it when she’s tossing it all over the house.

  • Leesa

    your daughter is SO cute- I love the slug story, it made my day. I was chuckling away to myself and my hubby leaned over to see why, he obviously likes you too -he said “hey, Bug’s using a mac”.
    I think we just enjoy the world from our own different angles.
    I expected you’d be gone away by now?

  • Keri

    When my brother and I were little, we would sneak Dad’s worms and lures out of the garage to play with. I don’t think I’ll ever forget what it feels like to step on a plastic worm-friend with bare feet or find them under the covers before bed ( the brother… he was a prankster). I’m so glad Bug has found a friend in fishing supplies!

  • Andrea

    I’m sure that it’s not really a 500 year long wait to let Bug climb in and out herself! Save yourself the hassle of dragging your kid over the cup holder and let her get up and down by herself. If the reach is too far, like in our car, buy a junky plastic step stool from the dollar store for her to climb in and out herself. It’ll save your sanity, like it saves mine.

    P.S. I’m glad that you splurged and got a new car seat.

  • Kari

    When my son was Bug’s age, (he’s now 9) he was in love with two cat toy mice that are covered with rabbit fur. They were bright yellow and red, and he called them Ketchup and Mustard. They slept in a minature box next to his pillow every night and had a scrap of fleece fabric for a blanket.

    He took them everywhere for the longest time but then one day he figured out that our cat would chase them down the basement steps and then “fetch” them back up to him over and over. (and over and over!) Both mice were happy causalities and they had more fun with them together.