Lovies

 Most children have items they become attached to when they are young.  For Nate it is his paci, blankie, but most of all his little stuffed dachshund that I used to call "puppy" but he now calls it dog.  I bought it before I was even pregnant from Gymboree when they had an adorable line of dachshund clothes.  And I only bought one.  It is my sincere fear that "dog" will someday be lost and I won't have another one!  I've scouted ebay to no avail. 

Joel and I both had animals we loved growing up.  Joel's was a stuffed dog named "Mutt."  Mutt still resides at his parents house, so I couldn't take a picture of him, but some googling brought forth this photo- which is very much what Joel's Mutt looks like.

So cute and well-loved to adorn a book on the subject.  I think I need to add this to my Amazon Wish List!

I had a love for Roo- the baby kangaroo from Winnie the Pooh.  Thankfully for my family Roo was in production for many years in the early eighties and when one got a little too loved a new one would appear.  Of course, none of the other Roos would leave, the new one was just added to the pack.  I believe there is a picture of me with no less than 8 Roos.  This one is the one that went on to live a happy, retired life in a bin in our guest room closet.  I'm sure he'll see some love again soon.

For Cole's lovie I thought maybe he would get these hand me down bears from Nate, which I intended to be his lovies (hence there are 3, lest one was lost.)  But Nate never really attached to them.  On a whim I ordered this lovie from My Blankee on my favorite (aka dangerous) kids sale site, Zulily.  It's a little blanket with a snap that you use to put a pacifier on (kind of hard to explain unless you look at the pic.)  Very early on Cole started grabbing for the blanket and it's also nice because if he spits his paci out it doesn't fall far--lost paci is a BAD thing!  He is also starting to be able to push his paci back in when he grabs the blanket.  So, once I saw that he was attaching to it I panicked because we needed more!  They retail for $25-36...insane for a 10x10 piece of cloth with a snap!  I checked their website-which is stocked with many more clearance options now than when I looked- and etsy for some cheaper options.  Thankfully another sale came up on Zulily and I ordered 2 more for the rotation :-)