Lovies.

Baby Ali and her lovies

I have had this song stuck in my head for two days straight...

L is for the way you look at me
O is for the only one I see
V is very, very extraordinary
E is even more than anyone that you adore

So when I sit down to write, I keep coming back to the word love. So let's talk about love. No, that's too sappy, let's talk about lovies. (Lovies, incase you aren't working off the same definition I am, are comfort objects small children carry around for comfort. Like stuffed animals or blankets or what have you.)

The famous Teddy
Growing up, my sister had a lovey. In fact I'd say she was the most attached to a lovey of anybody I knew, her Teddy Bear, Teddy. I had a string of lovies but never really took to one over all. I guess I had commitment issues, or maybe I just had bad luck. I lost my baby blanket, the one my mom made for me, in a hotel when I was 6. After that I did have a favorite cow puppet, Cowy (you can tell we were really good at naming things in my house), but he too was lost when I was 11. I still have some stuffed animals from when I was a kid, but nothing that I was ever attached to like my sister was to Teddy.

Actually, my sister is still attached to Teddy. She's now in law school. (My sister, that is, not the bear, Teddy doesn't go to class. I assume.)  I was always kind of jealous of my sister and her Teddy. It always has seemed like a special bond. Teddy was a member of the family like no other stuffed animal ever was. Teddy had personality. Teddy was (is!) special.

Sometimes I wondered if I didn't have one special lovey because I sucked my thumb. I was pretty attached to my tumb (har har) and I sucked it to an embarrassingly old age. As in, I was getting called out at sleepovers... I would say more, but it's... actually kind of humiliating. Anyway. When I had kids I was really, really sure to keep them off the tumb (seriously, the thing is like crack, I'm fucking 30 and I still sometimes want to suck my thumb. What is with that?), but I was really hoping they'd find a lovey.

When Kaylee was little I thought she'd found her soulmate in this pink and green striped blanket. As a toddler, she even made the teachers take pictures of it, alone, on school picture day. She called it her "boppy" and took it everywhere. It was great, because it always comforted her. But then I panicked. What if she ever lost boppy? So I went about bought like 4 more similar blankets, just in case. Maybe that was a jinx, because as it turns out, a fickle heart must be hereditary, and now she jumps around among handful of favorites, just like I did as a kid. Oh well. At least she's not sucking her tumb.

Dani and Jojo
But then Dani came along, and almost before we realized, she became attached at the hip to a teddy bear that looks remarkably similar to my sister's. The bear is named Jojo and goes everywhere. And for some reason I'm not scared. Jojo is a part of the family. Somehow I think Teddy's immortality has been passed on to this bear and he will be going along with Dani to med school (she's is very determined that she's going to be a doctor). Lovies really do take on a life of their own some times.

Did you have a lovey?

10 comments:

  1. I _do_ have one. I was a very happy baby until my mom and dad went out to dinner and left me with my cousins. I screamed bloody murder, even involving our close neighbor friends, who also failed to comfort me. My cousin Jim finally wrapped me in my mom's nightie, which calmed me down. It became mine. It got its name when a stranger asked toddler-me if it was my lovie and I thought she was telling me its name. It became "Buffy" and still lives in my sock drawer as a shred of its former self. (one year for Christmas I generously gave my family members bits of Buffy) You may well imagine how excited I was about Buffy getting her own TV show about killing vampires.

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    1. That's such a sweet story, and very unique. I bet you had to explain your lovey a lot at sleepovers as a child.

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  2. My favourite lovey when I was little was a bear called Edward that had been made for me by an old lady at my Mum and Dad's church. He had a very smart pair of dungarees on and brass buttons that I could polish up for 'best'. He is sat in guarding my spare bed at the moment - I still sneak a quick cuddle in every now and then! :0)

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    1. aw, that's sweet. It's extra special when something made just for you becomes a lovey.

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  3. Did not know they were called Lovies. I had quite a few and *ahem* still have one. He's a Teddy bear named Bobby. He has a witty, fun and very cool personality. My mom and I use him to talk to each other, yes even now. I cannot believe I am sharing this on a public platform, but this post made me come out, lol. Really sweet post. I guess the child in some of us never grows up. And so it should be :D

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  4. My daughter at almost 13 still totes her five, yes five lovies between my house and her dads. She cries if she doesn't have them. I had hoped we would be past this stage, but no..... then again, I still have my bear and blankie on my bed.

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    1. Wow, I really hadn't thought about the teen years. My brain is still in denial that my daughters will become teenagers and skips from adorable child to fully grown adult. :)

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  5. My husband and sister both had serious thumb addictions. My sister's thumb even got infected once!!

    Thanks for stopping by my blog!

    www.marie-everydaymiracle.blogspot.com

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    1. thumb infection from sucking? Oh my! I'm glad I never experienced that! Just another reason I'm glad my kids haven't picked up the habit. :)

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