Marla

Let's be honest. I was never really looking forward to the day that I had to tell Lily that she could no longer have her "Bobby". For those of you who don't know, that is what she called her pacifiers. Sure, she had ten of them, but they all answered to "Bobby". Though she only carried her Bobby around with her for a few months of life, she has always slept with her Bobby. Naptime, bedtime, and long trips in the car were not complete without her Bobby. When I tried to convert her to more age appropriate passy's over time, she never liked them. So, we stuck with what worked: the 0-3 month size. Over the past several months, she did start using the larger passys and I was always petrified her teeth were going to be so crooked we wouldn't be able to tell who she was. I kept reassuring myself she wouldn't go to kindergarten with her Bobby, but I was beginning to wonder.

I had seriously thought about a variety of ideas to get rid of her Bobby. I threw mine to the baby ducks and never asked for it again. Lily has given her Bobby to Landon on numerous occassions. But, those times ended with her begging for her Bobby back. I thought about leaving them for Santa to take to the baby elves. But, Christmas seemed too far off. I finally decided on putting her Bobby's in a Build-A-Bear.

So, on Saturday, Lily and I headed to the mall to Build-A-Bear. We had been talking about this for a few days and she seemed pretty excited. I suggested that she called her bear "Bobby" because we were going to put her "Bobby's" in the bears tummy. I guess I thought that putting her passy's in the bears tummy would be much simpler than her throwing them away or giving them away and never talking about them again. I wanted this to be something special that she would think of in a positive way. When we arrived at the store, I started showing her all of the bears. There was a really cute light colored bear, with a pink heart. I thought for sure she would love this one as much as I did. I would pull down a bear off the shelf and show it to her and she would say no to the ones she didn't like. Then, all of a sudden, she said, "Mommy, I want this one!"..MUCH to my surprise I turned, pointed to the animal, and said "This one?"...I picked up the dark brown monkey and she said, "That's my favorite!". Your favorite? I was trying to think of a good excuse as to why she shouldn't choose this monkey, but I couldn't. Out of all of the precious bears of all shapes and sizes, she chooses a monkey? Oh well. This was her new stuffed animal, so I had no choice in the matter. But, Bobby the Monkey? That didn't seem to fit.

We watched as the nice ladie stuffed the bear and then it was time: Lily put three passy's in the bear. She was slow to do the first one, but then added the remaining two pretty fast. She gave her monkey a heart and that was that. It was time to dress her monkey! I have never seen so many clothes for bears (or in our case, monkeys). They had everything from ballerina costumes to leather jackets, socks, hats, shoes. And out of the whole wall of clothes, do you want to know what my sweet daughter chose? A pair of pink panties with white and purple stars on them. Sure, the monkey needed underwear, but I was thinking that monkey was a boy. Lily insisted on just getting the panties. And I obliged. Afterall, this was all being done for her.

As we stood in line to pay for our pantied monkey, I asked Lily what she was going to name her monkey. "Tomorrow" she said... "Tomorrow," I asked..."No. Marta, Mommy!" "Marta?" She was obviously getting frustrated with my lack of understanding. Sure sounded like "Tomorrow" and "Marta" to me. "Marla?" I questioned her again. "Yes, Marla!" She was relieved that I finally understood her. So, off we went on our merry little way. Marla and Lily were new best friends. She sure clung to her the rest of the day, holding out hope that her passy's would somehow make their way out of her tummy. She has barely asked for her Bobby's and has done great without them. Marla, however, has become an occassional sleepmate. Some nights she wants her in bed with her and some nights she doesn't. It's probably a love-hate relationship since Lily knows what is deep down inside of Marla. Marla came along at the perfect time and Lily proved once again that she is the queen of transition. (She must be holding out until her teenage years.) Marla the Monkey was a happy addition to our family. Luckily, Landon doesn't take a pacifier, so we are off the hook for a while!