Dirty Loveys

Morgan usually has a hard time going to sleep if she's napped in the afternoon. Last night he was making her expected grunts, groans and yells while David and I watched TV. At one point I decided to go check on her. The usual routine is that she's "lost" her lovey(s) somewhere and as soon as I retrieve them she's fine.

This time it was different. (BTW, she has two of the same lovey. I bought one for back-up, but she discovered it and now requires two in bed with her). Anyway, I found the "missing" loveys, but when I gave them back to her she rejected them. I thought this was odd, so I tried again. This time she pushed towards me and told me "put them in the basket." This is something we say when the girls are taking off their clothes to change into their pajamas. The "basket" is the hamper for the dirty clothes.

So then I asked her, "Are the lovey's dirty?" No answer. "Do they need a bath?" Morgan said "Yes!" right away. I then explained to her that I'd need to take them from her for a while. She doesn't usually get the concept of how long things take. For example, one day I asked her if she wanted to make cupcakes. She got really excited, went to her chair at the dinner table and said "I want my cupcakes!" She did this off and on over the next few hours until they were actually done.

Then I left the room with the loveys and immediately (as expected) she started to cry. I went back in and gave her the loveys. She then sat up, grabbed them and got out of bed. She ran past me into the bathroom and tossed them in the bathtub. Hilarious! Then I had to explain that the loveys needed to be put in the washing machine, like we wash our clothes. I asked her if that was OK. She walked downstairs with me, put them in the washer and closed the door. Then she went right back upstairs and put herself back in bed, no complaints.

Honestly, the loveys have NOT been washed in a while. Usually I randomly grab them when I'm doing a load of wash when she's awake. They were probably pretty nasty. No wonder she demanded that I wash them! So, I washed and dried them, then put them back in bed with her. She didn't notice as she was fast asleep. She had no other issues all night. Problem solved.

I was SO excited that Morgan was able to communicate this to me. It was totally spontaneous and she used the words/phrases/actions she knew to help me understand what she wanted. Now if we could just expand the vocabulary it would be much easier. Hopefully it will come. Nonetheless, this is really encouraging. Such a nice thing to see after a rough day.