chicagodads

The pink plush monkey doll that we were referring to yesterday. Captain Huggieface. Jocelyn has been severely attached to this doll now most every night for the last, say, seven months or so. the attachment part we’ll get to tomorrow (hopefully…). What I want to dwell on today is the “most every night” portion of that sentence. In other words, there were three elongated stints of about two weeks apiece where she was separated from her beloved ape. The central event was when, in our rush to get out of the country and make sure that everything essential for the child was taken care of, we forgot that most important of seeming trivialities, the attachment objects (Captain Huggieface being one and a soft, light blankee being the other). The bookend events were when the monkey had to go in the wash and would end up in the laundry basket for two weeks or so until I got my lazy arse off to BubbleLand. (Let it be known that the first time was because she took off her diaper in the early morning and wallowed in the bed in her poop, holding up the desecrated companion with sheer joy on her part and utter terror on mine. The second time, about three weeks ago, she was crying so heavily that the monkey was encrusted with, well… crusts of tears and saliva I suppose).

Both times I washed that monkey, I brought the baby along with me. Both times I took it out of the dryer (that is, the monkey, not the baby), she lit up and smooshed Captain Huggieface’s nose to her mouth (hence the appropriateness of the name). As if it were a long-lost relative.

Which is odd, because she does not have the same recollection for long-lost relatives. Including myself. I had to play a short game of peek-a-boo with her when we got back from Colombia (almost two weeks after we left her in the care of relatives) just in order for her to drop her defenses and come to me. Afterwards, it was like she was in a weekend-long daze as she re-familiarized herself with her surroundings and neighborhood. Unfortunately, at least up until her extended stays with my wife’s side of the family, she doesn’t see any other relatives with enough regularity to instantly recognize them.

So, I’m wondering if it’s more than just visuals that trigger her memory (although I would kind of discount smell. Since I’m smelly and sometimes she doesn’t recognize me after a shave or haircut). I’m thinking that her memory is probably triggered as much by audible and tactile points. Although she can’t hear the monkey (unless I’m missing something here…), she relies mostly on feeling the monkey since most of the time she’s with it, it’s too dark to see.

But then again, she recognizes the monkey on sight, not touch.

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Nuts… back to the drawing board.

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