Candy
Scooby-Doo (which has recently replaced Dora the Explorer)
Frog BB (his blanket)
When Hawkins was just nine months old, he traded his bottle for a sippy cup on his own accord and rather suddenly. One day he was downing a bottle and the next he refused it. The same goes for his pacifier. At around fourteen months, he traded his pacifier for a blanket. It started off where any blanket would suffice, especially a fleece taggie blanket. But after a month or so, he had chosen his favorite and from then on, only "Frog BB" would do.
For the last two years, Frog BB has gone everywhere with us. He has been on multiple road trips, several hospital stays, subjected to hundreds of baths, and thousands of naps.
Adam and I had been discussing for months when we should take away Hawk's security blanket. If he only snuggled with it, we'd have no problem with him keeping Frog BB indefinitely. However, he sucks on it, which he calls "chewing". His older brothers did not have a pacifier beyond 2 1/2. Here Hawk is nearly 3 1/2.
I tried for about a week, as I tucked him in each night, to convince him to just cuddle with frog bb. "Don't put him in your mouth." Hawkins would sweetly nod and agree, though he didn't understand why. Sure enough, he would "chew" on it all through the night. (See here for one of my attempts to talk him out of chewing on his blanket.) I knew talking him out of it would be futile and unsuccessful but I couldn't bring myself to remove what Hawkins loved most. Frog BB was like a member of our family!
The three big boys slept over at Grammy and Papaw's house and we decided it was time. Adam "hid" him up on the top shelf of Holt's closet, which also happens to be in Hawkins' room. The next night, when we were putting him to bed, he asked for Frog BB but we told him that his blanket had disappeared and we couldn't find it.
He was slightly upset, but went to bed fine without it. Over the next few days, each morning I found a substitute in Hawk's bed. We figured since Hawkins was faithful to just the one blanket for two years, there would be no replacement. Apparently, his addiction was a bit more serious than we had anticipated.
It wasn't but a few days later and the boys discovered Frog BB. It was as though they had uncovered a sunken ship filled with buried treasure. "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" They all bolted into the living room with such joy and excitement. "We found Frog BB! He wasn't lost, he was just at the top of the closet!" It never occurred to them that his location might have been a bit more intentional than coincidental.
Perhaps all Hawkins needed was a bit of a hiatus to realize that he doesn't need anything in his mouth to sleep. Hawkins now continues to sleep with his beloved Frog BB but he no longer chews on him. In fact, some nights he has not even noticed that his favorite blanket is not in his bed with him. Truth be told, I'm kind of glad that Frog BB is still around and not in anyone's mouth.
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