The Chou Chou

We have never intended to give Caleb any "Chou Chou" but somehow, he has made Mummy's bolster his "Chou Chou". For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, a "Chou Chou" (literal translation in Chinese is "smelly smelly") is a pillow or bolster or soft toy etc which a child insists on holding on to at bedtime before they can go to sleep. Other variations of such a behaviour could be that they must carry their "chou chou" with them wherever they go and they get really upset if you wash or take away the "chou chou" from them. And somehow, the "chou chou" may seem old, dirty and smelly to everybody else, but the owner of the "chou chou" simply loves it coz it has their special smell.

So anyhow, I've got this long bolster which I bought during my pregnancy. It's longer than normal and it's like a flat, rectangle pillow. We bought it coz it's supposed to help support my heavy tummy and would contour according to my body shape. Maybe because it's held in close proximity to my tummy(when Caleb was happily swimming in it) for 9 months, somehow, we discovered that it has a sedating effect over Caleb.

For a start, Caleb loves to climb on top of the bolster, as though he is sitting on a horse and throw himself flat, face down onto the bolster and he'll fall asleep like that.

Whenever, we carry Caleb to sleep and we try to put him down on the bed, we have to swiftly pull up the bolster so that he can hold on to it, and he'll stay asleep hugging the bolster. Chances of him waking up and crying to be carried again are quite high, if not for the bolster. (The things that we parents do out of desperation!)

And here's Caleb having fun with his "chou chou".


We are making an attempt not to encourage him to cling on to any "chou chou" but sometimes we do cut him some slack and just let him be. Well, at least his "chou chou" is not smelly coz I make sure that I wash and change the casing every week!