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The persistence of memory

One of the best tips I've received for helping kids to learn to get to sleep by themselves is to introduce them to a "lovey" as soon as is reasonable---preferably one that smells like Mama. With Eleanor I was afraid to do this until she could roll around, with Amanda we brought "Baa" into her bed much earlier, but with Luke we gave him "Froggy" as soon as I was reasonably confident he wouldn't roll into it and not be able to roll back. He is a pretty good sleeper, and I'm sure Froggy helped him sleep. Even now, he really wants Froggy whenever he's in his crib. Now that Luke is older, sometimes he and Froggy have pretend conversations, Froggy sometimes does things that Luke is doing (get dressed, eat breakfast, slide down the slide). Froggy is a "good friend."

Another good tip I've received is to buy a replacement friend as soon as the chosen stuffed animal becomes obvious. Unfortunately for us, Luke chose a stuffed animal which immediately went out of production. We tried a year or 2 ago to buy a replacement, but it was out of stock.

Which is unfortunate, because we have recently lost Froggy. For the past 3 nights, Luke has gone to bed screaming, "Froggy! I want Froggy!" During the day, he'll occasionally say something like "Froggy in the car?" or "Froggy! Where are you! Froggy hiding." He wakes up crying for Froggy in the morning, instead of talking to Froggy. It is so pitiful. I have offered rewards to the girls for finding Froggy, Luke looks for him, but after Michael and I have searched the whole house several times, I'm losing hope.

Now we've ordered a replacement from eBay. I hope it comes soon. I am not worried that Luke will forget about Froggy before the new one gets here.

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Anonymous said…
Poor Luke... it's hard to lose a friend.

FNDP
August 17, 2009 at 9:55 PM
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