His Beary Best Friend.*with pictures!

A week ago, at 5:45pm, I got a call from O’s daycare. The toddler room teacher was leaving, you see, and he wanted to “better explain what you’ll see on O’s sheet for today.”

O had a rough morning that day.

Why?

The toddlers were going outside to do waterplay, and he wanted to bring his bear blanket outside too.

His teachers initially said no, because they knew that Bear would get wet and dirty. And then O wouldn’t have him later in the day.

But he threw such a fit that they finally decided that okay, they’d try it and see what happens.

And it went exactly to what they expected. Bear got wet, very wet. And dirty.

And his teacher said: “O was pretty unhappy when we had to hang Bear out to dry.”

So we decided, on the phone, that we’d bring an EXTRA bear blanket for inside. So that he would have one that was okay to get dirty, and one that was for indoor use only.

He now has TWO which he keeps there. TWO!

I KNOW that Baby O loves his bear blanket. I mean, I have pictures of him at 2 months, soothing himself to sleep with Bear.

But in the past couple of weeks, Bear has become Very Important to him.

HE CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT BEAR.

He walks around the house, hugging Bear. He’ll eat his dinner as long as Bear is nearby. And towards the end of the meal, he reaches out and says “beAH!” until we give it back to him.

At night, he sleeps with Bear curled around his forearm.

And this very morning, on the way to daycare, he hugged and babbled and rubbed Bear’s head.

As if Bear were his best friend in the world.

I will admit that initially I felt a pang of guilt that O was attaching to his Bear. You know. Because it’s my FAULT. Because we’re not around as much as he needs.

I know, again with the guilt. I tell you, it’s HARD not to fall into feeling that way.

BUT. I’ve been reading lately that a toddler using a transitional object to self-comfort is a good thing. Not only because he can help comfort himself when I’m not there. But because he’s starting to realize that he’s an individual, independent. Separate from J and I.

And Bear helps him with the Big, Bad World out there.

I really do love that he is starting to show a capacity for loving someone, all on his own.

I love that he’s got a friend to have with him when he feels unsure, or uncomfortable.

And I love that I thought enough in advance that we have THREE Bears in use. One in his crib. Two at daycare.

(And one in a ziploc bag in storage, just in case.)

My mother tells me that I was as attached to my Grover doll as O is to his Bear. And my MIL says that J had a hippo (named Hermione) which he used to carry with him everywhere.

So Bear’s in good company.

*Update: First – I want to let you all know I wasn’t REALLY feeling guilty. Really. I had a moment of guilt which pretty rapidly disappeared once I googled “toddler transitional objects.”

And because I want you to fully appreciate his bear love, I’ve attached a couple of pictures of him with Bear.

The first is when we introduced Bear to him, back in June 2008 (he was just under three months old at this point).

This one is of him showing Bear how to use the computer:

And finally, THIS video which I took about a month or so ago. Where he is loving on Bear without knowing that I was filming him. (He’s KISSING Bear – the open mouth “biting” that he does is exactly what he does to me when I ask for a kiss.

And really, the cuteness at the end – where he tries to get me to smile – is too much for me.