A Boy and His Lovey

I don't remember where this thing came from, or who gave it to us (my Grammy maybe?) I mean, look at it- its like a baby body pillow with a decorative puppy on it. What, the, heck. Obviously it serves no purpose, other than to be baby shower'd.


Unless you're 11 months old, and in need of a best friend.

I had no idea at all, that Charlie had a lovey. The other day he was extra cranky, those top teeth are to blame for sure (hes got like 5 coming in at once), and while my failed attempts of comfort were playing over and over in my head trying to clue me in where I was going wrong, I thought back to an episode of Imagination Movers (some ska band that works in a warehouse solving problems, its a Disney thing). In the episode (that I absolutely was not cozied up on the couch watching by myself while the kids were off playing) the movers were babysitting a tiny mouse who cried non stop until they realized that he was missing his lovey, which was a little quarter sized yellow blanket.

Oh.

Wait.

I ran up to Charlie's room (Charles still in arms, its a workout, I won't lie), reached into his crib and pulled out his blue pillow dog. You should have seen the look on his face.

I set him down on the carpet with it, this being the first time that it had ever left his crib, and they rolled around together until I interrupted the rendezvous by picking them both up. When I tried to move Charlie from my arms upstairs, into his high chair downstairs, the pillow came too. Charlie wasn't letting go anytime soon. After a meal of pureed pears, rice, and mamas pumped milk (the pillow pup sat in my lap the entire time), I set both puppy and Charlie down on the living room floor by the toys, to see how they'd mingle in the outside of the crib world. Charlie completely ignored the toys, and rolled around with his best friend, the non machine washable decorative dog (see how this poses a problem?), for over an hour.



Seriously, how did I not know sooner?

From now on, I can only assume that Charlie's lovey will become part of the family, in the same way that Eleanore's yellow blankie has. We have a strict rule for her though, now that shes a big girl, not a baby, that she has to leave her blankie upstairs during the day time, and we rarely make exceptions (if shes sick, or really really tired, we'll let blankie visit the downstairs). I thought we were done with the days of toting around and treating fabric as best friends, but how could I ever deny how strong the bond between a child and their lovey is? I still sleep with the same teddy bear that I've had since I was 3 years old.