Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Kids and Their Loveys #mommyfail

When my oldest was a toddler, my mom and I were out with him at Toys R Us.  We were walking through the store, and came upon a wall of stuffed animals.  My mom saw a cute monkey (it was a hand puppet, had a long tail and if you squeezed his head he made a monkey sound). She picked it up and showed it to Mr. J and he was hooked.

She bought it for him and it became his "lovey".  He slept with it, he cuddled with it and he brought it with us in the car almost anywhere we went. He always seemed to hold it by the tail - it was never used as a puppet.   He loved that monkey so much, and when he was 2.5 ended up with a tummy bug and vomited all over it. Because of the voice box, I couldn't put it in the washer and dryer, so I did the best I could by hand washing it with a mix of dish soap and vinegar/water.

Sound asleep with "ee ee"

I still wasn't comfortable letting him have it though. He knew it was being cleaned and would be a few days before he could have it  back.  When we were at Toys R Us looking for a coming home outfit for his baby brother, we passed the same wall of animals and he saw the monkey. He grabbed it and looked at us with big eyes "wha ee ee doin?" (he didn't talk much, and ee ee was what he called any monkey)  We let him have it and paid for it on our way out.  A few months after his brother was born, he happened to find the old monkey - he was so excited that he had TWO monkeys.

He ended up with another stomach flu a few months later (he was 4) and vomited all over it again - well, both this time (he woke in the night throwing up, and it was all over his bed and monkey).  I chucked the original monkey, and cleaned the newer one best as I could.  I am not sure exactly when it happened, but one day monkey stopped showing up around the house.  He was left in bed. Then, monkey somehow ended up in the laundry basket, and I found him when I was washing clothes. I put him on a shelf in the basement, and Mr. J seemed to forget about him.

A few months later (he was almost 5) hubby and I were going through stuff in the basement cleaning up and throwing out - he saw monkey and asked if we could chuck it ... I wasn't so sure, but he did it anyways.  Mr. J didn't ask about him, and every now and then I would wonder if he remembered but never brought it up.

Then, last week we had a friend over for supper and we were talking about lovey's (he saw that Mr. K was carrying a red sweater) and I mentioned monkey....later that night, Mr. J got VERY upset and started sobbing - he finally told me that he missed monkey terribly and wanted him back.  I guess he HAD forgotten about it, but when we were talking it brought it all back up.  I promised him I would look for a monkey, but that I didn't know if I could find one.

So far, my search has failed. He and hubby even went to 2 different Toys R Us locations and no luck.  I refuse to give up my search - even if it takes 20 years, I will continue to look for "ee ee".

Do your kids have loveys? How old were they when they gave them up?

28 comments:

  1. My oldest (3.5) doesn't have one. He never got attached to any of his toys. My youngest (1.5) has 2 small animal/blanket that he sleeps with and is attached to. He only has them in bed though.

    Have you looked on Toys R US online for the monkey?

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    1. I have - I have even googled using all kinds of different descriptions and still coming up with nothing.... I am fairly certain it was a "Russ" brand animal, but still no luck. We are keeping our eyes out any time we see stuffed animals, but so far no luck :(

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  2. This is something that I did not have to deal with. Neither of my boys ever great attached to a stuffie or anything like it.

    Have you tried to ask Toys R Us if they know where you can get one? It might just take a simple email to HO...

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    1. Hi Amanda, thanks for your comment! We haven't tried that yet - but it is on my list of things to do! Thanks

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  3. My daughter has a couple of loveys. A stuffed Clarice and this raggedy dog she loves. She use to take them everywhere around the house.. but slowly, she's leaving them behind more and more. She'll now eat breakfast without needing them staring at her... she's 7 & will be 8 on May 1st, I figure by the end of summer she 'might' abandon them.. maybe.. lol

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  4. Oh no!! Thankfully my boys have never gotten that attached to anything (other than me!) Though my oldest son doesn't like to let the baby use his baby blanket....

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    1. Thanks for stopping by - at least you won't have to worry about ending up in this situation!

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  5. My son never got attached to any stuffed animals or anything like that.

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  6. That's dedication right there! I don't have kids yet, but I know that when I was little, I had a ton of stuffed animals that I was attached to. I also had a quilt that I was especially attached to.

    Happy SITS Comment Day!

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    1. thanks so much for your comment! If / When you have kids, buy extra's if they have a "lovey" so you don't end up in this situation (and make sure NOT to get rid of it no matter how much you think they do't want/need it )

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  7. Stopping by from The SITS Girls to leave some comment love! :)
    Too cute! My son is 8 months old, and has a small "Eeyore" doll that he has had since he was about 8 weeks old. He loves that thing! I'm not sure what it is about it, but no matter how many toys he has, he is always comforted by Eeyore.

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    1. thanks for visiting! Eeyore is my favourite disney character!

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  8. Yes, my daughter is 5 and still has her "minks" (swaddle blankets). We've had emergencies that required overnighting packages of them from amazon. The key is to get them attached to something that you can have MANY of :)

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  9. That is the sweetest story ever. I am sure you can find one on Amazon or ebay. Poor baby. He misses his lovey. He is a cutie.

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    1. thanks so much - I am still searching, but no luck yet

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  10. Awwwwww. That is such a sweet story, and kinda sad too! I pray you are able to find a suitable replacement. My daughter had a lovey, it's a white (well not it's grey) bunny. She is 7 now, but still has to keep tabs on Bunny and he still sleeps in bed with her. I can relate! :) xx #sitsblogging

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    1. that's sweet that she still sleeps with it! I wish he had kept up with his, then we wouldn't be in this position :(

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  11. My kids love their blankies. We got my 6 year old to give his up and give it to the baby. Well, he often asks for it back and we've found it in bed with him more than once. Is it so bad for him to have a lovey? I don't think so. But my hubby is standing firm.

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    1. I don't really think there is an issue if it's more a sleeping thing at that age - thanks so much for stopping by!

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  12. My little one is just 12 weeks, so still a little young for a lovey, but I'm nervous about the day she has one and then something happens to it! I'm tempted to get backups of whatever becomes her lovey one day.

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    1. definitely get back ups to whatever she shows attachment to - thank you for visiting!

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  13. My daughter has never been attached to any lovie... except for me. She need to stroke, scratch, and pick at my chest or the inside of my arm in order to fall asleep and also for comforting. On the one hand it's great that I don't have to worry about keeping track of or cleaning a blanket or stuffed animal. But on the other hand it is a major problem because she won't take a nap at all if I'm not there for her to cuddle.

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    1. My youngest went through a phase where he had to rub my arm to fall asleep...it didn't last very long, but I certainly enjoyed it!

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  14. My daughter had a "lovey" which Grandma forgot at an out-of-town McDonald's. Needless to say, there were lots of tears for a while afterwards. I looked for a replacement but never found one. She still, five years later, will sometimes bring it up... I'm glad my other 3 have never gotten attached to "loveys"!

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