Quintin has been watching Elmo's Visit to Grouchland lately. In it, Elmo loses his special blanket and goes on a quest (through Oscar's garbage can) to find it again.
I know that security objects can have a very healthy place in a child's life, helping with transitions and providing a sense of comfort & ritual, and have tucked various soft blankets & toys around Quintin since he was born, thinking that one might become THE special object for him. A few have hung around for a while -- he carried around an ET doll, from church friend Bradley, by its long, alien neck for a few weeks beginning at about 1 1/2 years; Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Ernie get a lot of loving (we got them from Save A Lot just before Christmas last year); he takes a few Cars to bed with him almost every night (Bailey gave him his collection of Cars just after his first birthday -- many of them have been rubbed beyond recognition).
Quintin's good friend, Holden, has several "Night-Nights," blankets with a small stuffed animal attached, that he requires to sleep. This, combined with Elmo's dramatic attachment to his Blanket, evidently got Quintin thinking and, a couple of weeks ago, he asked for a blanket. We fortunately had many to choose from -- gifts from his baby shower, a couple handmade; my own baby blanket; my brother's baby blanket. Quintin chose to carry around each one I got out, and ended up with a precious reindeer hoodie blanket from Nana, Mommy's baby blanket, and Uncle Mike's baby blanket (the first three I pulled out of his dresser). He looked so adorable clutching the blankets -- all of that baggage made it pretty difficult for him to walk! The blanket clutching lasted only a day, since he quickly learned that playing was trickier with a blanket, but we still have them in the car and every now and then, he'll ask to cuddle with one during our drive :-D
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