Security

If we ever lose one or both of the above items, our entire lives will change.

The receiving blanket on the left was "lent" to us by a dear friend when the twins were first born.  She will never get it back (and knows it) because it turned into Pea's beloved security blanket.  Pea never took a soother (though we willed him to take one quite desperately) and we tried a myriad of items, all of which failed,  to help soothe him.  I'm not sure when it happened that he took the blanket on as his security item, but it had to have happened over the course of feeding him his bottle each night before bed.  I used the blanket to catch any spills and to wipe his mouth.  I suppose there may have been times when I put him in his crib with the blanket as I made every effort not to disturb him too much as I left him. Now, he sleeps with it every night and for every nap.  When he is hurt, he asks for his "Bankey" and his whole being lights up when he sees it.

Chick used MANY soothers (often at the same time) for the first two years of her life.  They helped her sleep like a champ, but I was getting more and more concerned about her bite after age two.  So, after our trip to Disney in January, we cut her off cold turkey.  It was TOUGH for a while and there were many occasions when I wanted to give in and give the soothers back to her, but I knew that the difficulty wouldn't last and she would be okay after a while.  Interestingly, her new security item became "Daisy" (pictured above).  Like, Pea, Chick sleeps with Daisy for every nap and at night and cries for Daisy when she is hurt or scared.  When she was having a tough time at pre-school, the teachers told me that she could bring something from home to make the transition a little easier.  So, Daisy went to school with Chick.

I love that each child has a meaningful attachment to something that helps them feel safe, but losing either one terrifies me more than anything I've ever known.