my little linus

Leah has a soft white blanket she calls, wait for it, "the Leah blanket".  This was given to her by my good friend Lisa and has her name embroidered on the corner.  Just as a note, anything personalized I think is a thoughful gift for children, especially second, third and subsequent children since they so often get hand-me-downs.  Jillian obviously had a lot of new things being our first girl.  And while Leah loves to use things that used to belong to Jillian, she really enjoys hearing about things that were bought just for her.  Needless to say, the Leah blanket is quite dear to my little third child.

Ever since I've been at home Leah has been enjoying our lazy mornings.  She comes down the stairs in her pjs with her blanket trailing behind.  And before she's ready to eat breakfast or start the day she wants to be snuggled onto the couch with her blanket and stuffies.

Stuffies can be any assortment of animals/dolls but always includes pink bunny.  Pink bunny has been with Leah for a long time.  It was a little something I threw in my cart at wal-mart to put into Leah's stocking for her first Christmas...I was trying to fill it up with a few things as possible since she needed absolutely nothing so her stocking mainly consisted of soothers (still in the packaging to take up more room), kleen kanteen sippy cup and this bunny.  There might have been some plastic cutlery thrown in there just for fun. 

Pink bunny has not left her side.  Leah became very attached and started falling asleep rubbing bunny's soft ears.  Thinking I was quite clever I picked up a few extra bunnies at the store as they were relatively cheap.  Little did I know the bunny style had changed ever so slightly...the new ones have some dark pink inside their ears rather than being all light pink.  For a long time the bunnies were all interchangable and the world was great...with 4 bunnies on the go we were always able to find one at naptime and bedtime.  But for some reason in the past year Leah decided only the all light pink bunny was good enough to sleep with, and has since shunned all dark pink eared bunnies.  Can you believe even in the dark of the middle of the night Leah can tell when I've grabbed the wrong bunny...true story!  Bunny has been through a lot with Leah, even getting a hospital band to accompany Leah into the operating room when she had her dermoid cyst removed.

While I may get slightly annoyed at bedtime doing the light pink bunny and Leah blanket hunt in order for Leah to get snuggled into bed, I do love she has her bunny and blanket because it reminds me she's still little.  I adore seeing Leah each morning with bunny under her arm and blanket trailing behind her on the stairs.  The day she stops asking to be snuggled in on the couch will be a sad one indeed.

That being said, Kyle has had Doggy since he was a baby and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight to having him in bed (don't you just love my kids' creative naming skills?  I can't wait until they have children).  Doggy was a present from Grandma, who is now gone, which makes him all that much more special.  Kyle may not drag doggy around the house the way Leah pulls her blanket and bunny behind her, but he does still like to have doggy by his side at bedtime.  I'm fairly certain doggy is going to literally disintegrate one day because he looks about a million years old and I'm always a tad afraid he'll come out of the washing machine in pieces (so far so good!). 

Kyle with Doggy at just under 3 years old playing on the computer

...some things never change!

And the reason Jillian isn't pictured here with her special stuffy?  Is because she doesn't have one!  Jillian's favourite stuffy changes week to week.  Whenever she gets a new one, that's the favourite until something else new comes along.  Or sometimes she rediscovers an old favourite and they end up as her bedtime buddy for a few weeks.  I find it interesting some kids gravitate to one particular stuffed animal and/or blanket, while others like Jillian are content with whatever is available.