The Lovies

When a child is born, they are often given plush, stuffed animal friends. Of these friends, there may be one that is favored above all others. To a child, this particular friend becomes a "lovie". Lovies comfort your little darlings when they are sad or scared. They soothe them into a dream-filled slumber.

When Izzy was 14 months old,  we turned our entire house inside out looking for Tadbit (Izzy's buddy blanket lovie made by Bunnies By The Bay).  Tad is a friendly looking fuzzy frog head with a short satin-lined blanket for a body and he is Izzy's world. For the first two years of her life, she never went anywhere without him and couldn't sleep without feeling his softness against her face. When he was lost, everyone was in a panic. You can imagine the mounting anxiety for me as a parent of a lovie obsessed child. Tad had to be found. I was already imagining sleepless nights and long days of whining for comfort when we finally found him, looking sad and alone, on the side of the road where we took a stroll earlier that morning.

I decided then and there to run to the store and buy 4 more Tads. There was no way this was going to happen again. I quickly learned that having multiple lovies in rotation is essential to maintaining comfort for our child and sanity for us.

With a fleet of reserves we were prepared for anything - misplacement, torn limbs, ripped seams and laundry day. Izzy would never have to be without a Tad. We kept his clones a secret for a while, rotating them through the wash so that they all looked the same. It was brilliant, until Izzy walked in on a clean pile of Tads lying next to the crib sheets I was folding. I will never forget the look on her face when she learned the truth: There is more than one Tad. Fortunately for us it never affected her. We followed suit when our son Mack was born and he too has his own little fleet of soothers ... duck-headed blankets named Emmett.

If your children are like mine, or you are thinking of purchasing a lovie for a child, consider my advice and buy a spare or two... or four to keep in rotation. Enjoying the satisfaction that ones children are happy, comforted and quiet is (in my opinion) worth the extra money and space taken by their lovie clones.

With love,
Mrs. Darling