Written By: Jeanie Chang
townsquaretoys.com
Does your child have a lovey? Do they have a baby blanket, stuffed animal or toy they cannot sleep without and/or carry around with them everywhere? I don't know how my three year old got attached to his lovey - a Curious George tumbling monkey because its head was extra heavy and could tumble when you set it down. Anyways, the Curious George tumbling monkey was actually a gift for my older son when he was a year old and for some reason, he never cared for it much. One day when my little one was sick, I gave him the stuffed animal to comfort him during a nap. It ended up staying in his crib because we forgot to take it out and the rest is history. It's his best friend and we take it everywhere we travel. I'm not sure how he would sleep without it. I never had this experience before because my other three kids never had a lovey.
Panic set in this past summer when we saw how the condition of the monkey was deteriorating. His nose had fallen off a while back and his eyes were unraveling and the head looked like it could fall off very soon. A beheaded stuffed animal would have been quite traumatic for our son. We looked into buying another one and wouldn't you have it? It was discontinued and going for around $100 plus on Ebay! Never mind that. We dropped the issue for a while, but each night as we put him to sleep we would nervously check the monkey to make sure it was still intact.
Just two weeks ago, my husband finally decided we couldn't wait any longer. He searched Amazon.com and found a Curious George very similar. It looked similar enough to "replace" our son's lovey without him noticing too much. My husband prepped my son by telling him we were going to take the monkey to the doctor and get him fixed. We got the monkey shipped a couple days later and decided to wait until the weekend to "replace" him. Last Saturday evening, my husband took the old monkey and hid him in our closet and put the new one on my son's bed. We showed him the new monkey and said that the doctor fixed him all up! Initially, he did not like the new monkey. This only lasted one night because the next morning he told us how the doctor had fixed the monkey and the monkey now makes noise! My husband and I were a bit confused and thought maybe he was being imaginative which he can be. Turns out, he was right! As he was being put to bed, he pushed the monkey's hand and the monkey made a laughing sound! We cracked up because we had no idea that it did that. We had replaced his old lovey, alright - with a new and improved monkey that "talked" or so our son thinks!
We replaced our son's lovey with a new one because I think it's fine for him to have one. If it was a pacifier or if he was a thumb sucker then I would be more concerned, but I think it's cute to have him so attached to a stuffed animal. As I said before, my other kids never had a lovey so this is new to me. What lovey does your child have? Are they really attached to it? How do you feel about it? Share your stories!
Yes, my son has started to become attached to his blankie. I'm not sure when or how it happened, but there is a definitely a #1, #2, and #3 blankie if you can imagine that! The reason behind so many, I noticed my two nephews had a blankie and attached to the one and only and it was difficult to get it washed because there was only one that they loved. To ensure that my son wouldn't have this problem, I never let him have only one, we rotated through 4 different blankets every time one needed washing. Now, he has a favorite, a second favorite and so on. If he sees his favorite he drops all the others and goes for the favored one! Perhaps like you mentioned, something happens and they become attached because they didn't feel well or were sad. I think if I look back it may have started around the time I went back to work and put him in daycare.
Oh, and he's also an index finger sucker. Odd, I know, but I think that was my fault too. I didn't want him to have a pacifier or become a thumb sucker that when he was an infant, I allowed him to suck on my pinky to soothe sometimes, like in the car since I couldn't nurse while we were driving. I think the shape was similar enough that he started to suck on his own index finger. Now I wish I hadn't and would like to get him to stop! Any suggestions?
Posted by: Jennnie | January 15, 2011 at 12:49 AM