Jacob loves Jemaine

Taken 5/01/10 - aged 10 months

As part of our Sunday cleaning blitz, I decided that it was high time J-cub's giraffe, Jemaine, had a wash (for those who are interested, Jemaine is named after Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords, another of our favourite TV programmes. We're not telly addicts, honest). J-cub sleeps with Jemaine, and drags him around everywhere, and bites on his head when he's teething, and dips him in his food, and takes him to nursery, so he tends to get a bit dirty. Or completely filthy. His care label says 'wipe clean only', which I successfully did for a while, but from time to time he needs a proper clean, and I put him in the dishwasher, with the idea that he won't get as wet in there as he would in the washing machine. It doesn't work, as he comes out sopping wet, but he does come out clean, and (so far) unscathed.

I put him in today, after J-cub's morning nap. So far, so good. J-cub was a bit grizzly, and signed 'more, cuddles' a few times, whilst looking in all his usual Jemaine-depositing areas. When he got tired, the dishwasher hadn't finished, so I tried to put him down with his other sleepy friend, Blue Ted. And J-cub screamed, and screamed, and sobbed, and kept crawling around the cot, and peering out to look on the floor, and picking up Blue Ted, and throwing him as hard as he could at the other end of the cot. After an hour of cuddles and rocking, we gave up and brought him downstairs again.

Jemaine had since been moved to the tumble dryer, but was still damp. A couple of hours later, J-cub eventually fell asleep, and I felt like the worst mother ever. Both for taking away his special friend, and for him being so reliant on a transient object, that even I can't comfort him without it. Part of me can't help but feel that his attachment for Jemaine must stem from sleeping in his own room, in his own cot, with just Jemaine and Blue Ted for company. I know it's silly, and I know that lots of babies have special toys or blankets that they love. I'm just spectacularly good at beating myself up over things like this.

A couple of hours later, J-cub had woken from his nap, the tumble dryer was finished, and they were reunited. J-cub was almost indifferent, giving Jemaine a cursory glance then carrying on with his cup game. Maybe I over-reacted.

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Today's Look Up photo was taken at lunchtime, during an ill-advised "Let's eat cherry tomatoes on the rug in the lounge" moment. J-cub enjoyed picking them up, squishing them in his fist, sucking them a bit, then spitting them out. We were picking up tomato pips for hours.