Silly Jilly and her "Guys"

Silly Jilly LOVES her stuffed animals!  She reminds me so much of myself when I was a little girl because I LOVED all my stuffed animals too...so much so that I still sleep with my favorite one, a panda bear named Andy that I have had since I was 5.

She is so funny about her stuffed animals.  She calls the bunch her "guys."  Sometimes she is content to have just 1 or 2 of them by her side, accompanying her to the breakfast table or to color.  Other times, the whole gang is making the trek with us to the grocery store or for Sunday morning snuggles in Mommy and Daddy's bed.

This particular day, she told me she wanted to take a picture with Mickey and Minnie because they matched her pajama shirt.  She insisted that we take a break from our morning hustle and bustle routine to take this pic.  But it wasn't long till she was reaching for her crib to "take a picture with all my guys."  (And I may or may not have been 15 minutes late to work this day in order to take time to enjoy this little impromptu photo shoot...it's the little joys of being a mommy!)

So she lined them up one by one.  She was sure to sit them in each other's lap or to make sure that they were all looking up at Mommy and saying "cheese!"

Yup, these are the guys she sleeps with every night.  From left to right, front to back: Abby Cadabby (from Mommy and Daddy, to match her Halloween costume), Violet (from Mami Mari and Papi Papo), Mickey (from Granny), her Easter Bunny that says the "Now I Lay me Down to Sleep" prayer (given to her on her first Easter from Grandma and Grandpa), Lady (or "Wow Wow" as she used to call her, this was her first stuffed animal she got attached to, from Auntie Chuya), Bubble Puppy (from the Bubble Guppies, her favorite show, given to her by us on Christmas), Minnie (her current favorite, from Granny), and Monkey (bought for Jillian before she was born...before we really even knew we were having a girl).

Who knows if years from now, these will all still be with us...for now, I just wanted to remember each of her guys because she loves them so much.  They take up some space in her crib, but she seriously stays awake until they are all in there...she can tell if one is missing (so I have to sneak into her room in the middle of the night to wash them, haha)!

Silly Jilly loves her guys!  And we love to see her snuggle with them, love on them, or treat them like they are real.  It is clear that they each hold a special place in her heart, just like the people who gave them to her!