Totoro!

For Christmas B. gave me two stuffed totoros, little cute animals famous from Japanese animated movies by Miyazaki (they were first in My Neighbor Totoro). One is blue and has a little bag of acorns, the other is grey. They join the rest of the totoro family, which was two that I bought in Japan (one little white one and one larger light grey one). They are a grandfather, his daughter, her husband and their child, and B. and I play with them and act like they are speaking to each other pretty much every day. In fact, we even use them for conflict resolution by having the totoros discuss issues that we are having trouble with, or providing comfort if one of us is feeling upset. For instance, Grandfather Totoro will give me good advice or Girl Totoro will tell B. that Amanda is sorry for doing something.

I love the totoros and interacting with them with B., but it is definitely something I think I would be embarrassed to do (or even admit to) in front of other people, because I think most people would think we were really strange for talking stuffed Japanese animals at each other, let alone giving them a complex personal history. I think it's interesting how so much of your interaction as a couple is highly personalized and wouldn't really make sense to others; it's like you create your own world where the two of you live, full of illusions that are only intelligible to you.