Claire and Eeyore

27th October 2012

I don’t recall when the love affair started, but it’s so sweet to see Claire babying Eeyore. Just this morning she woke up and she said : “Mummy, I had a dream.” And I said : “What did you dream about?”

And she said : “I had a dream about Eeyore. And Eeyore was dreaming about me, his mama.” Awwww… so sweet.

She’s now got a little cardboard box cover turned upside down that she uses for Eeyore’s bed and some towels for linen and some doll accessories for a blanket and pillow for Eeyore to sleep in and he sleeps on top of the bedside table that is just next to her little mattress bed on the floor and she likes to pretend that Eeyore is in the top bunk bed and she is on the bottom bunk bed.

She carries him to bed with her at night and wakes up looking for him in the morning. Eeyore’s little pink ribbon fell off his tail the other day and she was visibly upset. I didn’t have time that morning to sew it back on, so we put a little red ribboned hairclip on his tail and she was satisfied with that for the rest of the day. That night, I secretly snuck him out of his little cardboard box bed while she was sleeping  and brushed off my rusty sewing skills to fix the little pink ribbon back on his tail. He was brave and didn’t squeak one bit. Eeyore getting his tail mended.

It’s so cute too to see her reflect, in the way she treats Eeyore, the way that I mummy her.  She likes to ask me to help Eeyore cry for her when she pretends to leave him. So I oblige with a high-squeaky voice pretending to be Eeyore and I whine : “Come back Mama!”. I guess that where Claire is concerned, I have become the voice for Eeyore.

The sweetest thing is to see her nursing Eeyore. She’ll sometimes tell him, just as I’ve told her, “not now, Eeyore, later when we get home.” Or sometimes she’ll ask him : “Eeyore, do you want the other side?”

Oftentimes, she has asked to bring Eeyore to school with her, but the preschool doesn’t allow the kids to bring toys from home with them to school. So Eeyore shares the ride with her in the carseat and has to sit patiently in the car, as she tells him : “Eeyore, I’m going to school. You stay here and wait for me. When I come back, I’ll give you a hug and a kiss, o.k?”

So oftentimes, in Claire’s pretend world, Eeyore IS Claire and Claire is Me.