At Elias’ last doctor appointment, his pediatrician recommended that we get a baby doll to have around as one of the things to help prepare Elias for his little brother. In fact, we had already bought a baby doll for him when he pointed at it and said, “baby” in the store.
However, Elias has never been much attached to this baby doll. He occasionally throws it up in the air, carries it upside down by one foot, or steps on it trying to get to other toys (all very reassuring signs for the new baby…..), but has not shown much interest in it other than that.
Actually, Elias has never been very interested in stuffed animals. He doesn’t have a comfort blanket. Up until a few days ago, he wouldn’t tolerate any blankets in his bed so we’d have to sneak one on after he was asleep.
Yesterday, Elias started talking about his doggy stuffed animal. And surprisingly, he wanted to have his doggy in the crib with him when he went down for a nap. Then the same thing at bedtime. And today, both nap time and bed time he wanted doggy with him.
But the cutest part was when I was going through Elias’ nap time routine with him. As we were rocking in the chair, Elias was holding his doggy, and all of a sudden said, “doggy has boogers.” He started pretending to pick the doggy’s nose, and then got a kleenex from the shelf next to the rocking chair to wipe it. I was amused, but mostly ignored it for the sake of the nap time routine. However, Elias then started giving his doggy a diaper change. He put the doggy on his back and talked about using the wet cloth to clean and then the dry cloth. He went through all the motions with his hands. He said, “It’s a big one!”
Anyway, I thought it was adorable. Even if he is not practicing on “baby,” I’ll take pretending on the doggy. In just about three months he could be changing his doggy while I change a real baby. Both a scary and a fun thought!
