Saturday, March 13, 2010

Loveys

Paige will be 10 months old on Thursday.

This week, I'm pretty sure she found her first "lovey." This is my friend's name for the stuffed animals her sons love best. They are the ones they take to bed with them and in the car on trips. They are the ones that make wounds heal faster and tears dry quicker.

You all know what I'm talking about.



Rye has a blankie. I put it in his crib with him when he was a baby and he latched on. The poor blanket is thin and ripped and probably on its last days. It has been everywhere with us - on road trips, on airplanes, on hikes, at restaurants, to the movies, you name it.

The blanket even apparently has its own gender. We forgot to bring it to daycare earlier this week and when Rye realized it in the car, he said, "We forgot Blankie!"

I told him we weren't turning around to get it. And Rye said, "But I need him."

Him. It's like they are friends.

So Paige has fallen in love - and fallen hard - with our cat, Daphne. Anytime the cat walks into the room, Paige makes this sound of excitement and hurriedly crawls over to her. Daphne is the nicest cat ever and just lets Paige hug her.

The hugs lately, though, have become tighter and longer. I'm careful to make sure my baby isn't hurting my favorite cat, but still, a few times I've been surprised Daphne tolerates all that attention. Why don't you just walk away, cat? I sometimes wonder.

After letting Paige hug and squeeze and kiss (yes, I know) the kitty for about 10 minutes the other night, I had an idea.

I opened the toy box searching for a small, soft plush kitty Rye had abandoned long ago.

When I found it, Paige's eyes grew wide, she smiled that toothy grin and she immediately put that stuffed animal to her left shoulder and tilted her head to give it a hug.



I melted.

It was the most adorable thing I've ever seen. And it was the first time Paige has shown much interest in a toy.

She didn't let go of that plush cat either. Not while I gave her a bottle and not when I laid her in her crib.

I covered her up and watched as she snuggled her head into what I'm pretty sure will be her lovey.

This post originally was published on momaha.com. Click here to read more mommy blogs by me and others.

3 comments:

Jen said...

I can understand why you melted...that is adorable!

When my kids were that size, they never got close enough to "love" the cats...in fact, we barely saw one of the cats before 8 PM when the kids were safely tucked in bed!

Chris said...

So sweet! Can't believe she's almost 10 months old.

Anonymous said...

I don't blame her. Daphne is one cool cat.