This photo is of Maddie when she was about two years old. I lived across the hall from Maddie and Liza at the time and used to babysit a lot. Maddie wasn’t allowed to watch tv very often and movies were only allowed as a special treat, so to respect her mom’s wishes, I would spend the entire time babysitting her playing dress up, and tea parties…we’d put on a cd and dance around, pretending to be rock stars. We’d dance around the living room pretending to be ballerinas. We’d play “parachute” where we would take sheets off the beds and run around, jumping off the couch pretending to be parachuting from a plane. Basically, I had to get very creative with playtime.

And after one particularly rigorous session of play, Maddie collapsed on the floor.

“Hey, bear…you ok? I thought you wanted to have a tea party next”

She didn’t answer, but kept laying there staring blankly at the wall.

“Maddie? You ok?”

“Paci…” she said in a whiny voice.

“Paci’s only for naptime. You gonna nap?”

“Paci…” She cried again, a pout forming on her lips.

I went to her crib and grabbed her favorite green paci, placed it between her lips and watched as she refused to move at all. After a few minutes, I left the room to clean up a little and when I returned, she was fast asleep in the exact position.