Bejeweled

Olivia loves trinkets. She loves little things she can hold and carry with her. She finds little plastic rings or ‘jewel’ embellishments that fall off decorations and carries these things, holding them against her chest as she burrows into the couch. She falls asleep holding these things.

Last week, my mom gave Olivia the best present ever. It is an amber colored jewel that is the size of O’s palm. It’s flat on one side and is point on the other, sort of like, a well, a jewel.

She loves this thing. When she first saw it, she gasped and whispered, “Precious.”

She has had that thing within reach for the last five days.

That first night she got her new jewel, after she fell asleep, I carried her to bed and put the jewel on the bathroom counter where she’d find it first thing in the morning.

This was one of the nights we’ve been implementing our sleep training. She woke up at about 3pm, calling out, “My jewel? Where is my precious jewel?”

I called out quietly, “It’s in the bathroom, Sweetie. You can have it in the morning.”

She sighed, “But I need it.”

I sighed back at her and got up to get the jewel. I knew that the sooner she had that jewel in her hot little hand, the sooner we’d both go back to sleep.

And what do you know? It worked. She grasped her little piece of amber glass and went back to sleep. And get this, she wasn’t in my bed. Win!

The next and all the rest since, I’ve put her jewel on the table beside my bed for just such bejeweled emergencies. It’s come in handy too, I’ve had to get up just long enough to give it to her twice so far. This is way better than having her climb into bed with me. Just saying.