Squishy and her Bun-bun

Mike and I bought Sydney her Bun-bun, her favorite toy and lovey, before she was born hoping she would love it.  Bun-bun is a bunny with long white (now somewhat gray from being loved on) floppy ears and arms and then a pink blanket body with a silky inside and a soft outside.  We thought she just had to have one because two of our favorite kids in the whole world have Bun-buns too! They are awfully loved and we thought ‘wouldn’t it be cute if Syd had one too and picked it as her lovey just like they did?!’  Turns out she loves Bun-bun just as much, if not more!

We started offering Bun-bun to Sydney to comfort her and fall asleep with when she was 3 months old.  We sent it with her the first day at the nanny share across the street because it smelled like us and home.  Everywhere we went we would bring Bun-bun incase she melted down and needed it!  She was allowed to have it to help her fall asleep, but not to sleep with.  That all changed at about 5 months old, when we started sleep training her.  I would let her fall asleep with Bun-bun, while observing her spying on her with the video monitor to make sure it wasn’t suffocating her and then when I felt she was really asleep I would sneak in and take it out of her crib, she would roll around looking for it, but would usually settle back to sleep.  As she became older and it was time for her to really start sleeping for longer stretches I realized that she needed Bun-bun to help soothe her back to sleep when she woke up, so I started leaving it in the crib for her.  Now when she falls asleep she HAS to have Bun-bun or she is not going to fall asleep.  It’s so cute, last night we realized that she loves to hug Bun-bun when she’s sleeping.  She also likes to tug on the arms and ears and drag the ear across her eyelids when she’s falling asleep.  During the day when she’s playing with Bun-bun she likes to chew on the ears and see if she can get the whole ear in her mouth!

Mike thinks that Bun-bun ranks higher in Sydney’s world than he does!  He thinks the pecking order is Mommy, Bun-bun, Daddy, some nights there may be some truth to this statement! Tonight we discovered that Bun-bun is starting to look really worn and has a few potential holes forming.  I decided that we will need to buy Sydney another one for Christmas as a back up Bun-bun, but shhhh don’t tell Syd that we are going to try alternating them, hopefully she won’t notice.  She can tell the difference between one that is somewhat like Bun-bun and rejects it when you try to use it, I’m hoping that if we get the exact same one she will be OK with alternating between them.

What are your experiences with your kids and their favorite toys or lovey? Do you have a back up just incase? How do you sneak it away to wash it? (Bun-bun is smelling a little ripe because she chews on it and gets milk on it)