Even before Ellie was born, she started receiving stuffed animals as gifts from family and friends. For the past year, her ever growing collection -now about 15-20 - has been serving as decoration on a shelf in her bedroom. The only stuffed animal she has shown any interest in (other than Affie the hand puppet that she loved when she was an infant) is her Flat Elephant, though I am not sure that it counts as a stuffed animal because the only thing that is stuffed is the head. Anyway, she actually has two Flat Elephants that she received as gifts from two different cousins of mine - one is pink and one is green (they are cleverly named "Pinky" and "Greeny") and she is completely obsessed with them. You are not supposed to put blankets or stuffed animals into the crib with an infant (because of SIDS), but Ellie really needed something to hug and suck on to comfort her to fall asleep. So we started putting Pinky or Greeny (since it is small and flat and we thought hard to suffocate in) in her crib to help her fall asleep at about 3 months old. She has cuddled and sucked on her Flat Elephants at nearly every naptime and bedtime since. Because the elephants are so near and dear to her (and they signify sleeping time), we keep Greeny in her crib at all times for night sleeping and Pinky goes to daycare/in the car for naps.
Two weeks ago, we sent Pinky to daycare with her for naptime, as usual, and when I went to pick her up, they casually mentioned that they could not find it. (First of all, how does something get "lost" in a one room center? Better yet, how does something get lost in a crib?) I think I nonchalantly told the Director to let me know if it turned up, but in my head, I started completely freaking out. Of course we are lucky enough to have two of these elephants that she loves so much, but the idea of only having one worried me. What would we do if she lost the other one?! She may never sleep again! I wildly started calling my cousins, doing Internet searches and generally acting like a crazy person. Thanks to my fabulous cousin (thank you Louie!) a new Pinky is on its way and the crisis has been diverted. I feel slightly embarrassed to even relay this story because who gets this insane about a stuffed toy? But she adores it! Ah, the lengths we will go for the happiness of our children.
Back to the stuffed animals. So, about three weeks ago (before the Elephant incident) Marty went in to get Ellie when she woke up in the morning and she started grunting and reaching for the stuffed animal shelf. She grabbed one of the stuffed animals (a purple Hippo) off of the shelf and proceeded to hug it and carry it around with her all day. Thus, the stuffed animal craze began. Until that morning, we didn't even think she knew the stuffed animals were there. She went from not even being interested in them to being completely obsessed literally over night! She wants to carry them (yes, all of them) around with her all of the time and every morning she reaches out to her new pals on the shelf, excited to choose a new friend for the day.
Even before Ellie was born, she started receiving stuffed animals as gifts from family and friends. For the past year, her ever growing collection -now about 15-20 - has been serving as decoration on a shelf in her bedroom. The only stuffed animal she has shown any interest in (other than Affie the hand puppet that she loved when she was an infant) is her Flat Elephant, though I am not sure that it counts as a stuffed animal because the only thing that is stuffed is the head. Anyway, she actually has two Flat Elephants that she received as gifts from two different cousins of mine - one is pink and one is green (they are cleverly named "Pinky" and "Greeny") and she is completely obsessed with them. You are not supposed to put blankets or stuffed animals into the crib with an infant (because of SIDS), but Ellie really needed something to hug and suck on to comfort her to fall asleep. So we started putting Pinky or Greeny (since it is small and flat and we thought hard to suffocate in) in her crib to help her fall asleep at about 3 months old. She has cuddled and sucked on her Flat Elephants at nearly every naptime and bedtime since. Because the elephants are so near and dear to her (and they signify sleeping time), we keep Greeny in her crib at all times for night sleeping and Pinky goes to daycare/in the car for naps.
Two weeks ago, we sent Pinky to daycare with her for naptime, as usual, and when I went to pick her up, they casually mentioned that they could not find it. (First of all, how does something get "lost" in a one room center? Better yet, how does something get lost in a crib?) I think I nonchalantly told the Director to let me know if it turned up, but in my head, I started completely freaking out. Of course we are lucky enough to have two of these elephants that she loves so much, but the idea of only having one worried me. What would we do if she lost the other one?! She may never sleep again! I wildly started calling my cousins, doing Internet searches and generally acting like a crazy person. Thanks to my fabulous cousin (thank you Louie!) a new Pinky is on its way and the crisis has been diverted. I feel slightly embarrassed to even relay this story because who gets this insane about a stuffed toy? But she adores it! Ah, the lengths we will go for the happiness of our children.
Back to the stuffed animals. So, about three weeks ago (before the Elephant incident) Marty went in to get Ellie when she woke up in the morning and she started grunting and reaching for the stuffed animal shelf. She grabbed one of the stuffed animals (a purple Hippo) off of the shelf and proceeded to hug it and carry it around with her all day. Thus, the stuffed animal craze began. Until that morning, we didn't even think she knew the stuffed animals were there. She went from not even being interested in them to being completely obsessed literally over night! She wants to carry them (yes, all of them) around with her all of the time and every morning she reaches out to her new pals on the shelf, excited to choose a new friend for the day.
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