The twins have gone through a few different stages of attachment to snugglies. Even at the very young age of a couple months Gwen lost interest in a pacifier and preferred her thumb instead. When they were several months old we gave Gwen a stuffed elephant that would play music when you pulled his tail. She seemed moderately interested in it, enough so that it got pretty dirty over time and we had to figure out how to wash it. It didn’t seem feasible to put the music box in the washing machine, nor did it seem like we could get it clean by wiping the fur, so Melissa performed an episiotomy and removed the music box. Gwen hasn’t missed the music since then, though she has become much more attached to elephant. She takes the two strings that come from his head, wraps them around her hand and sucks her thumb. Her elephant is also the subject of the first sentence she ever said. When she can’t find him she will earnestly ask “Where is he?!?”

Teddy prefers pacifiers to this day. Not long after he was born we discovered WubbaNubs. These are preferable because they are more efficient: they combine a pacifier with a snuggly. Teddy now has a monkey, a tiger and a duck. However, we aren’t sure how much longer he can have them because he has started shredding them with his teeth. He and Gwen both call them “passers”.

We have now gotten to the point where it is a dire situation if we can’t find their snugglies. One day Melissa could not find elephant anywhere and Gwen had to nap without him. Later in the day we found him in the onion bin in the pantry. Another example: we were at IKEA one night when we realized that Teddy did not have his dinosaur WubbaNub. We retraced our steps through the entire store but couldn’t find it and had to go home without it. On a subsequent trip to IKEA a few months later Chris watched Teddy shove his pacifier behind a shelf full of bathroom items, and herein lies the problem: both babies have a habit of throwing or hiding things that they want (especially when they are mad). Teddy will throw his pacifier on the ground and will immediately say “Uh oh!”. Everett observed this today and said “Teddy. It’s not uh oh if you chucked it!” Indeed.