When my first child, Bella, was very small and I was constantly crippled by the fear that I was doing everything related to parenting Very Wrong Indeed, I remember reading somewhere that French mothers didn't give their babies soft toys or dummies as comforters, but instead they used plain white muslin cloths. You know the sort, you'd put them on your shoulder when bringing up an infant's wind, in case of spills. (Oh, that smell when they're nestled into your neck...) The beauty in this idea is that the cloths are interchangeable, washable, and you can have ten of them, preventing anguished pre-bedtime "Where the hell is bunny?" scenarios. Of course, I thought, of course these slim, chic women have found an elegant solution to the comforter issue, and wished I'd known of it before.
This is what Bella had. Still has.
Bunny, a gift from my in-laws. It's always been known as bunny, nothing more, nothing less. My children are unimaginative with names for their toys. It's a kind of soft, square piece of fleece with a head attached and it's been through the washing machine many times. We would always put this little creature in with Bella in her cot - with no real idea of any attachment actually developing - but develop it did, for by the time she was one Bunny was a firm fixture in our bedtime routine.
Angus has one very similar, also a thoughtful gift from my in-laws while I was pregnant. While we didn't know Bella's sex until she was born, we found out that Angus was a boy at the 20 week scan and so this one is blue, for a boy.
This animal is also called Bunny and it is also beloved by it's owner and essential at bedtime. Angus refers to his toy as "he" while Bella's is always a "she". Beyond that, we only know which flipping Bunny is needed by whichever child wakes in the night, calling out and searching for the rabbit lost on the floor.
I had Pink Ted. (Hmm, perhaps they inherited their lack of imagination from me...?) His pink fur quickly fell off through over-cuddling and he's a poor, sorry looking rag of a bear now. He's in a box in storage at the moment otherwise I'd have dug him out for a photo opportunity. What about you, did you have a much-loved soft toy as a child? Did it have a silly name? Do please tell me, I'd love to know. I've just asked John and he apparently had a bear called Herbert. My sister had a bear called Gruffles. Gruffles?!
These funny looking creatures are precious to Bella and Angus, of course, but they are incredibly dear to me. They capture the baby and toddler years of my children in a way that not a lot else does, and it will be a sad day for me when Bunny 1 and Bunny 2 are no longer needed. For now, I will cherish their smelly, faded, raggedy bodies and be very thankful indeed that I gave my children these daft toys instead of a white muslin cloth. For where are the memories in that? I use my old ones as dusters.
Don't forget to visit the other Colour Collaborative blogs for more of this month's posts, just click on the links below:
Annie at Annie Cholewa
Sandra at Cherry Heart
Jennifer at Thistlebear
What is The Colour Collaborative?
All creative bloggers make stuff, gather stuff, shape stuff, and share stuff. Mostly they work on their own, but what happens when a group of them work together? Is a creative collaboration greater than the sum of its parts? We think so and we hope you will too. We'll each be offering our own monthly take on a colour related theme, and hoping that in combination our ideas will encourage us, and perhaps you, to think about colour in new ways.
I love seeing these toys. They are so very precious. Both of my children still sleep with their favorite baby comfort toy every night. My husband still has his too, though he is no longer bringing it to bed with him. :)
ReplyDeleteMy girls have favourite toys from baby years too. Heidi has an elephant that I open with a stitch ripper once a year and re stuff because she thinks if the head is flopping down it is dying! Megan has a jellycat rabbit called Mr Peebly (no idea why!) I love your little family story it does however sound a little more normal than mine! Jo x
ReplyDeleteI had Red Ted! He was knitted by a relative, and only very, very lightly stuffed. He was almost flat and incredibly floppy. And as I recall his head was quite square. But I loved him anyway. CJ xx
ReplyDeleteoh this is just lovely. I had a small panda called...Panda! He is still in the house somewhere.
ReplyDeleteCaz xx
my daughter had terry nappies that she liked and sucked on the corners of them til they were barely threads (didn't had dummies like her brothers (dont hate me, they/I needed them) and wouldn't give the nappies up until she was nearly 5 unlike the boys who gave up their dummies around 2-3. Although i had more than one she wouldnt given them up and i had to steal them to wash because tthey stank (great word). I had to rub the clean one all over with the stinky one to try and fool her - sometimes it worked! Though she is almost 18 the loft is full of cuddly toys teeny to enormous all stuffed into those pop up ziptop roundy laundry bag thingies (oh yeh hampers they're called).
ReplyDeleteIncluding the Bear Workshop visit on her 9th birthday which was 10 days before a major heart op so they are the ones we will keep forevs (including the little lion my late mum got her when she was tiny - the collectable ones from the 90s).
Bit rambly now - Eastendered out. I Knew Bobby did it. N'night zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
PS I gots nothing except my late sisters bear wearing a little dress of mine I think. zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I had Brown Bear, a gift from a neighbour who made him herself. I'm not sure what he is stuffed with, horsehair maybe? Something hard anyway, I once whacked my sister with him and concussed her. I also had Blue Ted who was much softer and squidgier and who I remember being tucked up in bed with as a child. I loved Brown Bear best though. (I never did much like my sister when I was small, as I confided to my mother aged four, or so I'm told, 'the baby stole my daddy'.)
ReplyDeleteBea has Piggy, a best friend for nearly nine years. Dom is less devoted but his current favourite is a Disney Planes sponge! The lovely bears at the end of his bed are now his football team. Lovely to read your post, I think the memories of these hugglies as they are called in our house are as important to me as the kids.
ReplyDeleteKnowing the anguish that a lost toy can cause I understand the idea of the muslins, but I agree, the bunnies are nicer! It is amazing how we hold these things so dear to us isn't it. I have special toys that I still have tucked away, never seen, but I know they are there and the memories are there too! Funny how so many different sorts of things can be precious to us, but they call come back to memories! xx
ReplyDeleteI had Billy Blue Eyes. I later swapped him - what a callous child I must have been!
ReplyDeleteAnd a blanket with a rabbit holding balloons embroidered onto one corner. It was grey but I've no idea what it's original colour was... It was also full of holes and I hated it being washed. I'd go around bleating 'Blaaaaanket' until I got it back again, then complain it had 'lost it's smell '. Lovely.
I remember when my kids were little and how precious their little toy was for them also. Such a special post.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely post. I had a dog called doggie. I cuddled him in bed until I swapped him at 16 for the one my now hubby gave me. Doggie now sits on a shelf in our bedroom. This is where I decide whether or not to continue!! ... Okay, deep breath ... Hubby's teddy got swapped for my lovely soft old school cardigan when I injured my shoulder at 18. It was something to rest my arm. I still have that same cardigan in bed now!!! Sad isn't it. It even goes away with me! Hubby has given up teasing me about it! I got so used to supporting my arm with it that I struggle to sleep without it and soppy as it may sound it really is comforting especially if I am feeling rough! My daughter never had a special teddy, just a huge collection on the end of her bed. Our son still has his teddy and struggles to go to sleep without it but he doesn't like his friends to know, he is ten. I guess it is all about comfort, some of just don't grow out of it!!!!! X
ReplyDeleteMy Mum made a soft toy for me. It was a funny-looking rag doll with cabbage ears made of red and white checkered fabric, the body was like a small cushion, the head was cut from the same piece, no seam between, and it was all covered in dark blue cotton cloth on the front and pale blue terry cloth on the back. A smile was stitched on "her" face, her eyes were buttons (pale blue plastic flowers) and the nose was a sparkly button. Her name was Schlumbl, which is not a real German word but denotes something soft, pliable, docile. I had Schlumbl for a very long time; although I did not "need" her at the time anymore, I think she was still part of the collection of soft toys on my bed until I entered my teens!
ReplyDeleteMy 21-year-old daughter just got a new packet of those white cloths for a Christmas gift a year ago. She cuddles with them and still takes them to bed as a comfort device. Shocking how such a fabric, used to mop up baby, became such s cherished item! We call them BC's, short for burp cloth. My favorite toy and constant companion was my pink teddy bear - Coon Coon. He is threadbare and hidden away in a storage box.
ReplyDeleteMy son had a bear named Ted, no imagination there! We went into Woolworths one day with my son in his buggy and there was a large mesh tub full of bears at the far end of the shop containing lots of honey coloured bears and one chocolate brown one. My son spotted these and kept pointing and making noises (he couldn't talk at the time). As we approached the bin he grabbed the chocolate bear and just wouldn't let go of it. We had no choice but to buy it for him for the grand price of £3.50. He loved that bear, it was repaired many times over the years and he still has it to this day although it doesn't share his bed anymore - well he is 30 in a few weeks time!
ReplyDeleteVery precious memories and toys indeed! Annie had Baba (rabbit said by a toddler) and Sam has puppy. He took puppy on his ski trip (he is 14). Richard has Gung, a bear. This is still with us and he is nearly 50. The younger boys haven't got a precious toy, which anguishes me a great deal. I made them knitted monkeys when they moved in with us but they never had that kind of nourishing envirionment and it maybe was too late by that time to form such precious relationships. Have a lovely weekend. x
ReplyDeleteLovely post! Our French family don't use muslins, they have animals on a square too and they call them "doudous" Neither of my children have ever been bothered by having a comforter (sniff) other than clinging to me when maybe they should have been old enough to stop waking in the night!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely post! Cuddly toys were a big part of our boys' bedtime routines and in the case of my younger (12 year old), they still are, and it is not unusual for me to find my very mature 15 y o son cuddling his teddy in his sleep. Why rush them out of these toys, no need as far as I am concerned. X
ReplyDeleteGreat post. My Dad bought me a teddy bear when I was "really" little and I always called him Teddy! I think maybe it's not so much unimaginative, but that when we are very small, that's what we are told they are called. Have a great weekend and take care.
ReplyDeleteLove this post. My grown up girlie still takes Scraggers, her soft toy dog, to bed with her whilst the boy was very attached to a little corduroy dungarees wearing toy rabbit (who now lives in the wardrobe) he named Eye (Aye? I?) which my mum bought for 50p. I remember the drama when Eye was accidentally dropped in the toilet!
ReplyDeleteClearly I lack imagination - Big Ted was childhood precious toy! And up until the day I got married and left home, he laid next to me in bed! Should I really be admitting that the world?!
ReplyDeletePink bunny is very similar to your bunnies. 'He' is no longer very pink and lives on the pillow for fear of being lost if taken anywhere
ReplyDeleteyes, i had Papa Giggy (a huge bear); heaven only knows where that name came from. My children attached themselves to something smaller (thank goodness)---my son to a Kanga I made (who had to get a new coat from Santa several times) and my daughter loved a handmade doll she named Allyn (I really wanted her to name a child after this, but she didn't have any girls and she thought it was an awful name???) and a handmade scraggly bird she christened Allister. Both kids are in their 40s----and both still have their buddies (somewhere). :) Papa Giggy is sadly long gone.
ReplyDeletePeter Pup has been with me for 50 years, his fur has been worn off everywhere with much loving except his floppy black ears; he had a major repair about 30 years ago when my mother patched his many tears and worn bits with felt. He sits on chair in our bedroom (as he has in every bedroom I've ever had) next to Sally Bear, who was made by my mother and Willem the Cat. They are old friends and I love them still.
ReplyDeleteI knew a friends whose daughter had a muslin cloth as her comforter, no more, no less. very useful and endlessly available! I was fortunate none of mine were madly attached to one, so no tears at bedtime about a missing friend!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous post Gillian. Those bunnies are precious indeed. My girl has a very special teddy...imaginatively called Teddy! He is very precious and my husband and I get very anxious when he comes on holiday with us (she can't sleep without him) in case anything happens to Teddy!
ReplyDeleteMarianne x
It's funny how these comforters become such an essential part of life! I used to use a soft fury blanket to put my baby boy down to bed, it helped avoid the dreaded falling asleep whilst feeding but waking up as soon as he was put in the cot scenario! At nearly 18 months he is obsesses with this blanket, carrying it around and tripping over it, across dirty floors- why didn't I have the foresight to choose a nice muslin cloth instead! Funnily enough my favourite teddy bear was called Barney and that is also the name of my husband, strange!... x
ReplyDeleteThese comfort-toys are a real joy to see! No wonder your kids love them!
ReplyDeleteTake care
Anne (Crochet Between Worlds)
this is sasha, she is very precious to me and sleeps in a patchwork draw string bag hanging off our bed stead and is cuddled, still, in moments of anxiety. I am 35 so I don't think I am going to grow out of it...
ReplyDeletehttps://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=E970B627C0A5FB5E!1082&authkey=!AL-c94c9GRnuRvQ&v=3&ithint=photo%2cJPG
Well I couldn't resist joining in to such a lovely post. I had a very special bear called Edwina (I didn't name her) and she stayed with me for my whole childhood. She even travelled to Australia by boat accidentally when some friends who were emigrating packed her! I've now given her to my oldest daughter, who understands that she was mummy's bear and is special. She's been renamed Weena and I hope she'll last for another generation or two. Antonia x
ReplyDeleteCute - rabbits are a theme I think, as my brother and I both had rabbits - mine was pink and his was a soft green. Mine was pristine and perfect and nameless (I wasn't much of a soft-toy kid), but my brother's is the rabbit I remember most - little Rabbie! He went through all sorts, even dropped down the toilet on occasion - and through the washing machine time and again. He's all worn and loved and adorable - aawww, Rabbie!
ReplyDeleteMaria x
Gorgeous comforters and very precious indeed. My childhood teddy was called ...............Teddy! No imagination around here either! x
ReplyDeleteMy oldest two both had / have muslins and loved them with a devotion that is humbling to behold. At 6 and 8 they still have them in bed but also play with them in the day. They have been blankets, ghost costumes, capes, bags, carpets, flags, weapons... My youngest has a taggie made by my sister in law and at age 3 added a pig. Piggie and taggie go every where together and are the best of friends. They also go for occasional washing machine adventures.
ReplyDeletemy daughter used to change her mind at least once a week as to what was the favoured toy, it drove me mad, offering endless options. my son was all about the muslins, he called them "woffs" I still have one, I can't quite bring myself to use it as a duster..........
ReplyDeleteMy daughter had a little rag doll called Mopsy who unfortunately got lost, dropped from the pushchair while out on a shopping trip. I don't know how many shops i returned to to try and find the little doll but alas, never found.
ReplyDeleteMy son had a black and white panda with no name, who went everywhere with him. When my son was getting married, I found Panda in the loft, washed him in the washing machine and popped him out on the line to dry. I gave him bright new piece of blue ribbon around his neck and sat him in the wedding car for after the ceremony as a good luck charm for the happy couple. He's still doing a good job!
I had a small panda bear called Pandy and my husband had a teddy he called Egg Sandwich! xx
ReplyDeletemy childhood toy, which I still very much have, and was with me in my incubator, is a battered white teddy. He, yes He, is called Wife, after I took him to Teddy Bears' Picnic at nursery and got chosen to be the farmer's wife during a game of The Farmer's In His Den. He still gets use if I'm having a blue day! I love that one side of his face is flattened from where I obviously cuddled him on the same side every night :)
ReplyDeleteI have a bear, called Little Bear. He's safe in a storage box under my bed. My daughter has a bunny, named Bunny. My son started out with a bear in a bunny suit, named Bear Bunny. When he was three, he chose a stuffed panda at the zoo and promptly named him Wilson. With the exception of Wilson, we aren't a very creative name bunch either.
ReplyDeleteI had alote blanket, "Fluffy", until I became allergic to it ! Disaster!
ReplyDeleteSuch a lovely, lovely post Gillian. My youngest's favourite toy is called monkey (imaginative!) and my eldest's started as 'crochetta mouse' (on her label! due to her (not by me) crocheted jacket) but is now firmly called "chettas"...and is in dire need of a new jacket and wash! My first dolly was called Dodo (yes, like the extinct bird- no idea why!) I did try to change her name as a child but always went back to Dodo! xx
ReplyDeleteOh Gillian, how lovely - I came over all emotional when I read this, sounds a bit silly I know. It took me back, the feel of those little newborn heads against my face will stay with me for ever. My eldest daughter's favourite ted was just called Teddy, while my youngest daughter had a teddy called Eric (who knows where that came from) and a more obvious Long Legs the cat. The days when these toys were essential bedtime companions are long gone, but they still treasure them, even at 22 and 20. Jxx
ReplyDeleteAs a toddler I had a crocheted skinny 'sort of' rabbit called Uggle Guggle. Our son was given 21 teddy bears (big community) but carried around a small pink pig that fitted Into his hand.
ReplyDeleteHi Gillian, l love your blog post, it really struck a cord with me and made me smile so much. Both my boys, now 18 & 16 had blankets and beloved toys. My eldest had a crochet blanket that l made when l was in school and his much loved friend was Gromit. He was well travelled and still sits on the end of his bed, arms open waiting for one more hug.
ReplyDeleteMy youngest had a cellular blanket and a Ty ginger cat called Mummy Amber. She is so thin now from many trips in the washer machine. Her neck has no stuffing from him holding her, l can still see him dragging her around everywhere. She now takes pride of place on his headboard, her job description is to watch over him as he sleeps :)
Thanks for making me take time to reflect on those precious memories and be grateful for all of those cuddles with blankets and soft friends xx
Oh, so sweet! We aren't imaginative with names either: Teddy for teddy, Frog for frog, Duckie for duck. Um, you get the picture :-) I had (well, still have actually) a teddy bear called Rodney. Rodney!? I thought I invented the name too :-D x
ReplyDelete