Baby Dolls, Teddy Bears, and Teething Rings

Audrey has always loved having things to snuggle. Ever since she was a baby, she would fall asleep clutching things. Usually soft things.

But really, anything would do.

She has a sweet pea doll that she loved so much that we had to make sure she had an extra one at Grandma's, and we had an extra one at our house, too. Until she realized we had two. Then she had to have them both.  She loves to carry her sweet peas, a blanket, and a pillow around the house.

Recently, there has been a strange development. A couple of weeks ago, Lydia was hiding in our storage ottoman, and Audrey climbed on top of it. Lydia quickly flung it open, throwing Audrey off. She was not able to get her arms out in front of her in time, and her forehead broke her fall on the wood floor with a horrible thump. Her forehead immediately swelled up with a ping-pong ball-sized lump,l and she had a really nasty looking purple and yellow bruise for quite a while. The night it happened, she complained that it hurt, so I gave her some children's Advil and let her hold a little ice pack we have that fits in a pouch on a stuffed horse.

Ever since then, she has insisted on sleeping with the horse. If I can't find the horse, she asks for, "Nother ice thing," and a teething ring will suffice. She freaks out if she wakes up in the middle of the night and can't find her ice. Tonight she got mad at me because I brought her one that wasn't frozen. "Dis not cold!" I have tried to convince her to just snuggle her sweet peas, especially when she complains that she's cold, but she won't have it. In fact, she insists the sweet peas are not in her bed, but on the floor by her bed. She wants the ice instead. I'm hoping she'll grow out of it pretty soon, and have told her it's just plain weird to sleep with ice, but she shows no signs of giving it up. Every night she remembers and she asks for her ice. I suppose there could be stranger things to sleep with? Right?