The Keisters made a gift of two plush fabric books to Colin and Gillian. These books have recently entered the rotation. One of these books is shaped like a penguin. This coincidentally works out quite well as Gillie's favorite book, "Snowy Bear" (
more on this later) features a penguin which she greatly enjoys. So we have taken to reading the plush penguin book. Today Gillie decided that she need to hug the penguin:

Since Gillie got to hug a book, we set Colin up with the plush cat book:

Colin wasn't quite as into the book hugging, but then again, he hadn't pooped in a while, so he wasn't really quite into much of anything. All told, they do like the books a lot, and the fact that you can hug them, just makes them all the better.
P.S. While Daddy enjoys reading (or reciting) the "Snowy Bear" book for Colin and Gillian, it is only six pages long and wears a little thin after a while. Also, Daddy is a bit troubled by the fact that while the book is titled "Snowy Bear", Snowy Bear does not appear anywhere within the text of the book. Instead we are introduced to a moose, a seal, a walrus, a penguin, a whale, and a puffin. It seems like a bait-and-switch scheme to me.