The Haley

A few weeks ago I wrote about the mysterious "haley" in Maybelle's life.  Her teachers at school had asked about the term.  I'd been hearing it around here on a regular basis.  Many of you--on the blog and on Facebook--had excellent suggestions for what she might be trying to say:  Holly?  Heavy?  Howdy?  Help me?  Hey, lady?

You were all thoughtful, generous, creative--and wrong, which I knew at the time, because she says all those words, and they're different than the word "Haley."

Here's what happened the other day:  she came downstairs first thing in the morning, and delightedly ran to the group of stuffed folks hanging out on the couch.  "Haley!" she pronounced.  "All the Haley!"  She's made similar statements since then.  "Haley upstairs," meaning that she and I need to carry the whole cohort up to her room.  "Haley here!" she cried this morning, because the dolls were on the floor rather than on the couch, and she was directing me to move them.  Or it.

I believe that Haley isn't the name of an individual doll.  Haley is the combined group of her favorite toys.  All the Haley.  They are one single entity, made up of individual parts.  You know, like the Borg*.

The Borg

The Haley

You see the similarities?  Just as the Borg say, "We are the Borg.  You will be assimilated," the Haley do the same thing (although without announcing it).  Initially it was just Lela and the girls, but now two monkeys, Dora characters, Super Grover, and even Llama Llama have been assimilated.  Other toys may well become part of the Haley.  Even I could become part of the Haley, required to sit on the couch in the morning, dance around on the floor, sing Maybelle's favorite songs, perform scenes from The Music Man and Dora episodes.

Hmmm....I think I might already be assimilated.


*It's worth noting that two different times I've connected my life to the Star Trek universe--in my non-blog writing I'm comparing reproductive decision-making to the Kobayashi Maru, and now my life is connected to the Borg.  I'm kind of disappointed that Star Trek rather than Star Wars is the world of representation I'm drawing on--but really, Star Trek has a lot more material.