Attachment, and reflections on personality

Attachment to Blankets
The girls are very attached to their "blankies" and "bershies" as they affectionaly call them. The blankets receive numerous hugs, are sometimes "fed" milk from a sippy, stroked, soothed, kissed, and are on the receiving end of the sweetest, whispered, "I love you, bershie" words.

The blankets remain inside the house, and they now say their goodbyes to the blankets at the top of the stairs each morning when we head outside. So cute.

Attachment to Toys
On the soft toy front, each child has a favorite lovey. Ada has an Otter, "Otterjasie" Julia has a panda, "Pandamonium" and Emma has a puppy, "Ore." The soft toys sleep with them, and are always near during the day. When we head out the door, the soft toys go along for the ride, whether it's in the car, the stroller or the Choo Choo wagon. Oh, how I love the sweetness of toddlerhood, when every fear can be assuaged by a lovey.

Lovey Personalities
Julia feeds Pandamonium "bamboo" from her sippy cup or spoon, and has squeezed him and loved on him that he's a shadow of his former self.

Julia insists that he understands English only. Whenever she has him in her arms and I'm speaking Afrikaans, she says to me, "Panda... English!" and then I have to repeat whatever I said in English, for the panda's benefit, you see. Cracks me up every time. She also laughs when I start speaking English to him. This child absolutely loves language. She has totally figured out that each object has at least two names. If I only give her the one name for something, she'll request to hear it in the other language. Blows me away.

Emma loves on her puppy all day long. She whispers sweet nothings in the puppy's ears, pets him, hugs him to death, and strokes his head. Puppy is often covered with her blanket and rocked to sleep. It's really sweet to watch her express her love. She's very gentle and sweet with puppy, and it reflects our most sensitive child's personality. She is most attached to her blanket and sucks on it to soothe herself, but the puppy is never far from her either.

Ada's otter uses his tail to tickle her feet. She makes him do that - it's not something I showed her. She says, "tick tick tick" and giggles. She greets him with, "More Otter" ("Morning, Otter") every morning when she wakes up. Ada loves her otter, but is not as attached to him as her sisters are to their lovies. Everything Otterjasie does reflects Ada's fun-loving, outgoing, confident personality.

Sharing Lovies
Every now and then one child will pick up all 3 lovies, and express their undying love for all 3. This is usually only "tolerated" for a minute or two at a time by her sisters, before someone reclaims their soft toy. If someone picks up the "wrong" soft toy on purpose, the owner will reclaim it by handing her sister the "right" soft toy.