Comfort Items

Everyone has some sort of comfort item or activity.  These items change over time as we get older and discover new things.  My comfort item of choice for the past few years has been coke.  As my last post stated, I'm trying to lose weight, so my comfort item has been thrown out the window...just when I feel like I need it the most.  But, this isn't about me, it's about the boys.

Both of my boys have taken pacifiers, which have been a great comfort item.  After John turned 1 we put him to bed one night and then scoured the house for hiding pacifiers and threw all of them away.  I was pretty sure I had unleashed the wrath of John on us all, but to my surprise he never seemed to miss them.  Gus loves his pacifier, but he also loves his bottle and I've had a hard time transitioning him to a sippy cup of any sort.  His bottle has proven to be a great comfort for him as I could just put water in it, but the act of drinking from it usually comforts a devastated Gus.  So as not to take two comfort items away from him at the same time I've decided the bottle goes first.  I have a feeling I will have a grumpy boy for a few days, but he may surprise me just like John did.

Another comfort item for both boys have been their blankets.

John had two, his wooby and his blue blanket.  The wooby was given to us by Hans' cousin, Katherine, and the blue blanket was made for John by a friend from Messiah, Kelly.  John just could not go to sleep without these two blankets.  I remember traveling once and forgetting one of the blankets; it was a rough trip with little sleep.  This past year he has not needed or asked for them so much, which is sad for me as it is further evidence that he is growing up.  But, when he is sick he still likes to snuggle with his favorite blankets.  He also still remains protective of his blankets as Gus is not allowed to even look at them.

Gus only has one blanket, for now.  This blanket was made by my Aunt Diane and given to him the week he was born.  He was swaddled in this blanket a lot as an infant and now sleeps with it every night.  We've never had a night without it and I don't intend to try that anytime soon.