Each of my children have their own special comfort objects. They are things they adopted as babies for whatever reason and have grown to love.
My oldest has Boobah and Bunny, two ratty stuffed animals resembling a bear and, well, a bunny. She didn’t adopt them until she was almost a year old.
Jacob, my precious boy, has Monkey, Duckie, and Beak. Monkey and Duckie have been with him since his crib days and we have secretly switched out Duckie 3 times for new ones due to the fact that he loves them sooo much. Beak is new to the clan and Jacob seems to believe that one is temperamental. He only allows Beak to sleep in the bed when he’s not mad at him for something or other.
And, of course there’s Charlotte. Charlotte and her Huggie. I put Huggie in her crib when she was just a few months old and it became her most prized possession. I’m not one for allowing the kids to carry around their comfort objects, they learn pretty quickly that they are just for bedtime. Except Charlotte. This chick can bust Huggie out of her crib at any given moment. It is not unusual for her to be with Huggie all day – refusing to leave his presence. (I don’t know why Huggie became a ‘he’ – but he did!)
See, pretty important. I don’t wash it nearly enough because it requires careful planning, execution, and capture to get him in the wash. Besides, I like to pretend she prefers him dirty.
The other night we were getting ready to put Charlotte down for bed. She immediately asked for Huggie knowing that he was the best part of her nighttime routine. But, we couldn’t find him. She had been carrying him around and had put him somewhere ‘safe.’
We spent well over an hour tearing our house inside out. We checked every nook, cranny, closet, cabinet, corner, under, over, behind, beside. EVERYWHERE! We kept asking her where it was, but she wouldn’t show us. We knew it was in the house, but even with two adults scavenging the rooms we were unsuccessful. We decided to put her down without it and just hope for the best.
We sat in the living room staring at each other while she screamed in her crib ‘Huggie! Daddy! Mama? Huggie! Huggie!’ Heartbreaking. It went on for almost an hour before she pooped herself out.
The next morning I heard her talking in her crib. I went in to get her and the first thing she said was ‘Mama, Huggie!’ I ignored her request and set her down on the floor. She immediately went over to one of her toys, pulled Huggie out of the tube, smiled, and asked for milk.
She’s lucky she’s cute.
