Luvvies as loveys

When Little Man was just three months old, his aunt and uncle in Canada gave him a gift of a small little bean-filled giraffe for him. According to his tag, his name was James. It wasn’t long before James the giraffe became a firm favourite in our house. So much so that we phoned Vancouver to request a second giraffe be sent over, in case the first one got lost!

I’d say he was about five or six months old before Little Man became firmly attached to James. And I will admit that we encouraged this attachment. Wherever we went we brought James with us. And going to bed, James was the only teddy allowed in the cot. I was so glad that we had done this when it was time to start Little Man in creche. It might seem silly, but when I was upset leaving him there, I consoled myself with the thought that “at least he has James.”

These days, we own six James the Giraffes. There are always a couple in the laundry, one in the creche, one in the cot, and maybe even one hiding on a bookcase, or in the storage compartment of Little Man’s ride on scooter. We couldn’t find them for sale in the shops, but luckily we found a website that allows us to order them from the UK.

When we bought the book “The No Cry Sleep Solution” I was delighted to see that it actually recommends introducing a “lovey” to your baby and promoting the attachment to this “lovey” so that eventually your baby will be able to use the “lovey” to soothe himself back to sleep. It’s certainly not a quick-fix to sleep problems, but I can confirm that it does work. On many nights in recent months, we’ve gone in to check on Little Man to find him cuddling James, or chewing on James’ horns and going back to sleep. And the girls in the creche have told me, that if he gets upset during the day, James is a great comfort to him.

Recently we found more toys in the same range by Russ Luvvies. So we got Wendy the Horse, Fred the Cow, Grayboff the Frog, and a few more. Little Man likes these other luvvies, but it’s clear that James has his heart! If James is on the scene, the others don’t get a look in!