Finally interested in stuffed animals at 3 years

We've had stuffed animals since before Tristan was born. Over the years we have accumulated more through gifts from friends and family. Tristan was never interested in them so we never bought him any. A couple of times in the past, he brought a stuffed animal to bed with him but then he would give it up before falling asleep or it would just be a one night attachment. He would then forget all about it. When it came to playing, he never played with his stuffed animals at all during the day either. We kind of thought it was weird, especially because we saw little kids his age or younger always carry stuffed animals in their strollers. Many of the daycare kids have stuffed animals in their cubbies or on their sleeping mats. Again, Tristan was never interested.

Just a couple of months ago, he decided to bring one of his stuffed dogs to sleep with him. That was cool. This was repeated again and again. He may have forgotten a day or two and then he would remember and bring his stuffed dog to bed again. Again! It happened so many times that he has now developed an attachment to his stuffed dog when he goes off to bed. I mean he can still go to sleep without his stuffed dog but it's routine now to look for it and bring it to bed. Occasionally, he would want it taken away and we would just place it on his bedside table. It's amazing to see all this now because it just happened all of a sudden. I wondered what triggered it.

Tristan's stuffed dog even has a name. He named it Bean. Then one day, he gave it a full name: Black Bean. We weren't sure if it was because we had been eating so many beans from cooking Jean-Louis' vegan food or what. When we asked Tristan, he gave us a very logically explanation. The stuffed dog's nose looks like a black bean. So does the dog's eyes. Fair enough :)

Now Tristan likes to play with his stuffed dog, as well as more of his other stuffed animals. He likes to cuddle with them and role play. He sometimes sits and read with them or watch dvds with them next to him. I guess this all really started when he was playing with all his toys more. He has all these stories in his head of what is going on and then he acts them out with his toys and stuffed animals. I suppose you can say he is bringing life to all of his toys. A couple of weeks ago, he declared it was Black Bean's birthday. His dog was turning 3. When I made cookies that day, we declared them birthday cookies and sang Happy Birthday to Black Bean, who was not present by the way. Tristan said that Black Bean could not blow candles or eat cookies anyway because he has no mouth. Very true. Yup. Being parents is sometimes wacky :)