Behind the Scenes with Plushie the Uterus

My sister texted me last week.

“Should I be worried that all the pictures you used to post of my niece and nephew have been replaced by pictures of a plush uterus?”

She’s right. I haven’t been posting as many pictures of my kids. I haven’t been writing many blog posts either.

But I’ve been really, really busy taking daily pictures of Plushie the Uterus. I post a #dailyuterus picture to Instagram, Twitter, Flickr and Facebook (acorndreaming on Instagram and Twitter, if you want to follow. An Acorn Dreaming has a Facebook page, if you want to follow there. Or you can see the pictures in the Flickr sidebar on this page.) What I haven’t been doing is posting them here directly, but I think I’m going to start doing a weekly round-up post of the Best of Uterus pictures.

In the meantime, I thought I’d let my loyal readers (all 5 of you) in on the secret behind the success of Plushie the Uterus.

Sure, Plushie is an adorable, plush, pink uterus and she deserves much of the credit. Then there is me – the operator of the trusty iPhone 4 camera.

But really? The person behind the uterus?

It’s Tink.

This could not happen

The Uterus Fairy makes all your wishes come true.

without this.

“Sweetie, eat your breakfast really quickly because I need you to help me make Plushie the Uterus fly like a fairy before I take you to school, ok?”

Tink has been my unwavering photo assistant. No matter how bizarre the request, Tink has never said, “No. No way. You are an embarrassment of a mother. Not a chance am I doing that.”

Tink has crouched in the rain behind an umbrella,

“Hurry up, Mom! I’m getting soaked!”

given me half of her doll clothes,

She’s under the table with one arm in Plushie’s dress holding her up. “Hurry up, Mom! My arm hurts!”

and crawled up inside a model of a great white shark.

“HURRY UP, MOM! IT’S CREEPY IN HERE!”

She might complain, but she never balks.

She’s taken Plushie into a plastic bubble in the middle of a Komodo dragon enclosure,

a fun house,

even on carnival rides.

She has given up her roller skates,

her cleats,

her seat at the library.

She has even made Plushie sized accessories at my request.

The other day I was wondering what she thinks about all of this, so I asked.

“I think you’re crazy,” she said brightly. “And awesome. I mean, who else has a mom who asks you to stuff a plush uterus in a Batman mask?”

She’s Batman!

I couldn’t think of anyone else.

Thank goodness my daughter is just as nuts as me.

**IT Guy and Ace have also helped with a few Plushie pictures, so I have to give them some credit as well. This really is a family project. I’m not sure what that says about my family.