Rudolph trumps all

Christmas evokes such conflicting emotions, it's a wonder why we bother. I think we keep it up for the presents, even though nobody ever likes what they get.
For Hadley, Christmas was confusing for her skeptical little mind, not least because she was forced to swallow the concept that a fat guy broke into our house to eat cookies and give her presents. She did not like the idea at all but was willing to go through with it for our sake. So I've decided not to push another lie on her. She can believe what she wants.

The myth of Rudolph, on the other hand, captured her little mind like nothing else in her short life. She watched the cartoon a bunch, left him some celery on Christmas Eve, and then proceeded to eventually become Rudolph over the course of several days. Over the holidays, Hadley was given a par of cardboard antlers at the mall, which she wore constantly. She insisted we call her Rudolph from then on. Then she started acting in what she calls the Rudolph movie: walking around the house on all fours while we narrate her adventures.

But now it's the middle of January and the reindeer thing has not subsided by any means. In fact, we must call her Rudolph all the time or suffer a toddler tantrum. She has assigned all other 8 reindeer names to members of her immediately family, including the pets. I quickly nabbed Comet before she gave it to someone else.

She introduces herself to strangers as Rudolph, going out of her way to make sure they get it right. She doesn't act reindeer-y anymore; she just wants the new name, which we are happy to go along with. What's particularly awesome is that Hadley has also added some new reindeer to the repertoire, since all 8 are already used up. Sometimes people get to play these roles, but mostly I think they're just for special occasions, when a toy emerges with no name. So far the new reindeer are:
Olive (from the 'other reindeer' story)
Fabula Janjula (I was temporarily given this name but it was stripped from me shortly after)
Journey
Sheena