Rite of Passage

Is every child as obsessed with mannequins as mine?  Like most things in life, it all started at the mall. At first he was intrigued and then they made him a little nervous.  And then he started into a "scary" phase. He began testing the waters of being scared and enjoyed dipping his toe in things slightly unnerving.  He started asking me to tell him "a story about scary mannequins."   I thought this was so weird and was like, "what the hey? yeah right"  until I finally gave it a try.

"Once upon a time, a scaaary mannequin began walking toward you...."   And i began to walk slowly and stiffly, like a mannequin would, until I started to scare myself and couldn't continue.   He still asks for this. I refuse.

Anyway, so he's a little bit scared of them but they carry a fascination.  When we go to the mall or someplace heavily populated with mannequins, he always wants to touch them to see that they are not real, and not so scary. Sometimes we will shake hands with them, or knock on their plastic arms, or remark how "that one with no head is silly!" (even though it is scary)

Yesterday I caught him examining one and I'm not sure if he was testing it to see if it was real or if we've entered an entirely different phase all together.  But immediately it reminded me of this:

And here we are:

Made me laugh.  Our Christmas is shaping up to be most festive.