A Tribute to Blue Fish

Every kid usually has some sort of "comfort" item whether its a blankie or a pacifier or some teddy bear maybe a bunny or something. We had bought tons and tons of different animals to see what he liked the best, bears, dogs, everything. But, Ryan is a very unique little boy with a unique little little buddy. Most know the story of blue fish, but for those who don't...

For his first Christmas, we were all excited to give him something really cool and memorable and ya know all that stuff a 9 month old will remember... Nana bought him a ton of stuff as did we all. While she was at Kohl's she grabbed a little stuffed $5 Dr. Suess character, blue fish. Just something extra for him.

That is the book cover as you might remember. Anyway, he went through his presents and the minute he opened blue fish, he just fell on it sucked his thumb and seemed ready to go back to bed, just in this big trance. Here is blue fish's first day of his important life...right when Ryan met him.

After realizing how important this new strange stuffed "fish" was I tried to figure out how to get a backup. Well its a special item only sold at Kohl's so we had to turn to ebay and found 2 more to get. So, we got 2 backups...what a day this was for him...

But even though he had 2 backups, nothing can or will replace the original..and he knows the difference and always has. From that Christmas Day blue fish has been every where with Ryan. Sometimes letting him get a quick midday recharge, help him sleep all night or just be in the middle of fun.









Blue Fish has been carried around in the back of a train....

And dumped from a dump truck...

Blue Fish has been to the Zoo and Sea World to see Shamu...

Blue Fish is just in the middle of it all...

Blue Fish might be in the middle of it all or just laying on the floor to the side while Ryan plays with his toys, but he always knows where blue fish is and its his one thing he can keep for consistency.

As you can see, the one of the left is the backup with limited wear and tear and the one on the right is the original for which nothing can replace, this guy has been through it all.

Last weekend Ryan spent the night with Aunt Kristin at her house for the first time. He was fired up and had a great time. Kristin took him to a place called Bonkers that is a big indoor playplace type thing. Ryan had to bring blue fish of course, but lately he had been pretty careless with him, never expecting something to happen to blue fish. In the craziness of this place, blue fish was left and no one realized this until they had already left. After the initial inquiry to the place to find out if someone turned it in..no one had. This was a major world changing problem. We spent the day Monday trying to talk him into using the back up blue fish. He was not buying what I was selling, but the backup was better than nothing. He was not hisself that night and his teacher even said something the next day about him being a bit different. Well, someone did turn blue fish in, the grundgy worn out fish and Kristin got it back. When we met to get him back, Ryan had the biggest sense of relief and excitement to get the original blue fish back..all was right with the world.

Ryan has had to adjust to living in two different houses and travel around to grandparents houses and go all over the place and he's adapted great, he's such a special kid and just rolls with everything that comes his way and he's just now almost three. I gotta say I'm pretty sure having a friend like blue fish has helped him, he's the one thing that is the same every single place he goes, someone he just knows will be there no matter what....what a great friend.

This was taken today a few days after the big near tragedy, there's blue fish laying on the floor in his room waiting for when he's needed for a recharge or if Ryan needs a little comfort outside of his parents or family.

Wouldn't it be cool if we all had a "blue fish" in our lives? Ryan sure does love his blue fish...