When Annie was little she never had a comfort blanket or favourite toy. Her toys went in and out of favour but she never ‘had to’ have one with her. Ez on the other hand has Mr Dinosaur, a gorgeous green dino by Jellycat.

Mr Dinosaur goes just about everywhere Ez goes and has been his favourite toy since Ezra’s first Christmas. Ez never wanted a dummy, instead he likes to chew on Mr Dinosaur’s dorsal plates and even carries him around in his mouth like a puppy with a chew toy! As a result poor old Mr Dinosaur is often soggy and a wee bit pong-y. To combat this we bought a back-up and when Ez wakes up he will hand you a damp, thoroughly sucked and chewed on Mr Dinosaur for you to exchange for the nice dry one on the side.

Cuddles with Ez can go from awesome to awful in the space of a few seconds if he tries to ‘let’ you chew on Mr Dinosaur’s plates by ramming him into your mouth! Despite this, and the number of times I get a damp dinosaur rubbed on my face / clothes / book I am reading / iPad / lunch, I do love Ezra’s taste in toys. He’s cute, tactile and very hardy, he gets washed and tumble dried once a week and looks none the worse for wear, no mean feat considering he’s supposed to be hand wash only.

So here we are, Mr dinosaur’s life so far in pictures, from his first ‘cuddle’ with Ez on Christmas day down at my parent’s, through the next 15 months to this morning after nap time.

Looks like Mr Dinosaur is going to be a part of our family for a long time to come.

Do your kiddos have a favourite toy or a comfort blanket?

I have been on a roll with the family movie making because I’ve already caught up and done the one for the previous month. Please join me in stepping back in time to December 2012…

December 2012 from Em on Vimeo.

It was a month that the kiddos got really excited about Christmas, Annie started incorporating ‘bum wiggling’ into her dances, Ez started walking, Annie serenaded the (poor) staff at Mothercare with her Christmas carols and Ezra Bear rocked a Santa mask for all of 2.7 seconds!

SInce Ezra started moving around under his own steam he has done every thing in his power to get to Annie and play with her / harass her / tweak her nose / pull her hair / get her attention etc.

I think it’s very cute but Annie  is (understandably) less keen. She puts up with Ez’s constant attention for so long and then she will go and sit on the back of the sofa where he can’t reach her.

On Saturday I photographed the evolution of the kiddos playing together…

Ez zombie-shuffled over to where Annie was practicing writing her name. He tried muscling in on the action which Annie put up with for a while and then she headed off for her safety zone high up on the sofa and left Ez to play with the Magna Doodle.

There are days when the two of them play together really nicely, Annie puts up with all of Ezra’s flapping and pulling admirably. On other days though you’d think Ez was poisonous, Annie won’t let him anywhere near her.

I know that as Ez calms down, learns more words and starts playing rather than chewing on Happyland figures or destroying train tracks then they’ll get on better, but rght now I love watching them interact, the good and the bad!

How do your kiddos get on together?