How we met Dr. Cornelius

So I let the baby knock two heavy clay mixing bowls onto his head. I am such a freaking amateur! I never imagined he’d be capable. They had been sitting on the bottom of an open shelf about 5 inches off the floor, but their size and weight seemed to put them out of the category of anything he could effectively manipulate. I was putting his bottles into the diaper bag and set him down right at my feet on the kitchen floor. At the first sound of jiggling crockery I had turned and was grabbing him, lifting him up to safety as the bowls splintered into large, thick shards on the linoleum.

Thinking we had escaped unscathed, I gaped wordlessly as I watched his face pull into a frozen, totally silent expression of wailing. Finally, he sucked in a deep breath and….WAAAAaaaaahhhhh! Apparently, as the bowls tipped, they clocked him on the side of the head and a nice little bump was already forming.

Poor kid. He’s such a little toughie, though. He got over it pretty quickly and we had a fabulous long walk downtown and he got a certain new toy we like to call Dr. Cornelius. We found the doctor at the puppet hut that sits beside the Indian Restaraunt downtown. I had been dying to go there for some time and was happily admiring the vast array of unique puppets when I noticed Nathaniel continually looking in one direction and laughing. Finally I sought out the object of his interest. A blunt faced, fleshy pawed, crazy eyed monkey.

I tried to convince the baby that there were many other, finer, choices. I stuck policeman puppets and nurse puppets in his face, trying to coax a smile. He'd only regard me with a bemused look that seemed to say, "So very amusing, mumma. I'm glad you enjoy playing with your puppets. Now, about that fabulous monkey over there...."

And, I had let him knock a bunch of bowls on his head. My fate was sealed. Dr. Cornelius was destined to become part of our family. Now, I look at him and realize my initial reaction had been too hasty. He really is a very handsome puppet. He speaks with a broad, friendly English accent and is a respected member of the faculty at Oxford. Sometimes, when he's in a very serious mood or, if he has a second glass of brandy, he'll tell us about the dark time when he lived at the Laboratory.