MY PILLOW

In the beginning, only Mommy would do. He never took to the Taggie, no matter how hard I tried. There was a brief love affair with the pacifier when day care started, but that faded by 6 months or so, and then it was back to Mommy. Finally, I found something he would cling to — Baaa, a stuffed sheep that had been a present at his baby shower. He snuggled with Baa for several months, until one day Alex discovered Doggie — Mommy’s 20 year old (yipes!) Pound Puppy from her own youth. Doggie lasted a few months, until, about 3 weeks ago, when Alex found MY PILLOW.

How we acquired MY PILLOW is an interesting tale. We were at Bed Bath and Beyond and they had a bin of those moshi-style squishy neck roll pillows with the billions of tiny beads in them to make them particularly soft. Alex saw the bin and went wild. He really wanted one. So I went over and grabbed the first one out of the bin and handed it to him — no dice, more whining. I must have pulled just about every pillow out of the bin — “this one? this one?” only to be rejected. Finally, he settled on one — alternating dark blue, light blue, green and bright orange stripes, very mod. He applauded happily, snuggled up to it right then and there, and has been loathe to let it go since. He snuggles with it every night, and often carries it around with him when he is home.

This morning, Alex woke up and crawled into bed with us — then he suddenly sat up bone straight and shouted “MY PILLOW!” climbed out of bed, went back to his room, and grabbed MY PILLOW and brought it back with him. He snuggled with it and with us for a good half hour after that.

I am glad Alex has found something that gives him comfort at night. He is much more attached to MY PILLOW than he had been to any of his previous sleeping companions (except maybe Mommy…). I myself had my Pink Pillow - hand made for me by my Aunt Margo and much treasured for many years hence - that I slept with pretty much up until I left for college and felt funny taking it with me. I have no beef with MY PILLOW. In fact, I am grateful for it, as in a few short days, there will be a new baby for whom only Mommy will do.