The Twins.

These are Reilly's monkeys.. or as far as Reilly knows, this is his monkey. I haven't thought to attach him to a "lovey", or any sort of other transitional object, it just didn't cross my mind. However, he has been particularly fond of his sock monkey lately, he likes to cuddle it when he is being held, hold him while he is being read to, and although he doesn't pay much attention to him when he is sleeping at night, he likes to play with him in his crib in the morning. The 8-12 month section of "the book" mentioned that you should have two of whatever your child's "transitional object" becomes, god forbid anything should happen to one, or it needs to be washed, etc. I glazed over that section because.. if you lose it- you get over it, or if you really love it you find a way to reconnect.. yes, I still have Sleeper, Jeff will no longer allow him in the bed, but he is very close by on a bookshelf.. and sometimes sneaks into the bed with us. I can't tell you how many family members had to priority mail that bear back to me, or how many times my grandma had to restuff and sew him up after one stuffed animal tragedy or another. However, Jeff read this section and insisted we have a second monkey.. and considering I have to pull teeth (or threaten their existence) just to get him to read a baby book, I definitely don't want to hinder any motivation. So.. Reilly has two monkeys! Rhonda is the best and picked up the second one at Cracker Barrel this week! As of now, I think he can tell the difference between the two because I experimented multiple times, and each time he chose the original, however.. original is going to be hiding in the closet for a while, while monkey #2 absorbs Reilly's smell, love, etc, and they will just continue to rotate for all of eternity. Until I die an old woman and Reilly is going through my things and finds out I lied to him his whole life about his beloved sock monkey..