Meet "Boof"

     Every child needs some sort of comforting device at bedtime or during times of duress. For my boys, it was the "bubbies", or breastfeeding, that got them to sleep at night, and started their day. It was a comfort to them when they fell, or needed some toddler support. It lasted quite awhile longer than we figured, but I was OK with it. As a result, neither of them ever had a soother or sucked their thumb. Nor did they have a Boof.


     I had high hopes of getting Evie on the breast too. When we first came home from China, I had started pumping to get a milk supply going again (colostrum in 4 days!), but found it too difficult to adhere to an every 3 hour pumping schedule and I gave up the idea, albeit reluctantly.

     I did feed her once or twice with the supplemental feeder, where a tube is taped to the breast, and the baby feeds at your breast from a nipple shield, however that whole system is for the younger mother with better eyesight to deal with the tiny tubes and small parts! I wished Bob had been handy to take a picture...I’d like to have evidence that I did try.

     But where this leads to is the Boof. Evie has always had some sort of blanket or cloth to rub against her bottom lip, as an aid to falling asleep. We noticed this right away on Adoption Day, while we were waiting to do paperwork etc. She’d obviously had a long day and was tired. Bob was holding her and she started to make cute suckling motions with her lips, rubbing against his shirt.

     After that, I always tried to have a receiving blanket handy for her to rub her lip against, and then it turned into using the Taggy Blanket that I’d been given. It is simply a small cotton blanket with ribbon tags sewn around the edge.  Some smart person saw how some children like sucking on the tags of toys, so they came up with this.  We used to refer to it as Taggy, then started calling it Boof, which was Evie’s version.

 

The first pic I have of Boof, on the pillow by my head.

Evie was still in a crib prior to the Boof.  Nice to have company one day when Sean came to visit!

     Boof is now a constant at bedtime, and sometimes during the day too. Always Boof is with us on a longer car trip. Evie sits contentedly sucking at a tag until it is soggy, then moves along to the next one. Just about every day there is a mad scramble at bedtime to find Boof, as she has invariably removed it from it’s home in the bed, and has taken it to another part of the house. Auntie Ingrid gave us an alternate Boof, but it won’t do, no no no.

    Boof is probably going to turn into one of those worn pieces of cloth that she will get attached to till she’s way past the age where it’s acceptable, and I’ve resigned myself to that. She has started taking a couple of stuffed animals to bed, so maybe the attachment will transfer, I don’t know. I don’t have experience in this...my father used to remove any stuffed animal or doll I took to bed with me, hiding them so I wouldn’t get attached! (Bob says that explains a lot...)  This response, because he’d seen my cousin get totally attached to....(wait for it).. a scrap of cloth! 

     That whirring sound you hear is my father spinning in his grave....

     Meanwhile, Evie just keeps sucking away on her tags.