lend me your ear...lobe

When Teresa was a baby she had an odd little habit to soothe herself to sleep. She didn't suck her thumb or hum or bang her head. Nope, nope, nope...she had to rub my earlobe. I'd lay next to her in the bed and she'd reach over and grab my earlobe, which by the way she eventually called "earrubs"...makes total sense, and she'd rub it between her fingers. She even had a favorite ear. My ears were pierced and once upon a time a baby I was babysitting pulled one of my earrings and tore my earlobe. So I let the piercings close up. One earlobe has a little dot and the one that tore has a trailing line. Teresa called this one the "snakey" ear and she did not like this ear much at all. She would deign to latch on if she absolutely had to but only if she had to. She wasn't particularly fussy as she got bigger and didn't just rub my earlobe...anyone's would do in a pinch. This habit started just around her first birthday and slowly started to disappear sometime in her third year. I can't remember the last time she rubbed my earlobe to fall asleep. Isn't it funny how we spend loads of time recording all the firsts but some of these "lasts" just slip through the cracks.

Here's Teresa rubbing Katie's little earlobe. I couldn't find any photos of her with mine.

Katie is an earrubber too. She started off just rubbing her own and graduated to other's ears after her first birthday. She's still going strong. There are many times when I brush her fingers away as she pulls on my ear. It's really very annoying, but I am sure one day I will realize that she hasn't rubbed my ear in many a day. And when that happens, I am also sure I will miss it despite how irritating it may have been.

And here's Katie rubbing her own. And yes...I KNOW she's too big for the swing but she's my third...at some point with number three, you just don't care about certain things.