transitinoal objects

Reading Winnicott, and thinking about transition objects, the thing that comes to mind for William was that he would always carry a Thomas train. It was frustrating because we would be at the park and he would need use of his hands to climb a ladder, but he would refuse to give up the train in his hand. He needed the comfort of a train in his hand. The park must have been threatening, he needed the comfort, never mind if it didn't make sense to climb a ladder with a train in his hand. He wanted near the pleasure of his train.

Andres carries the latest present we gave him, he likes to be thought of, though he's not so specific about what he wants. He's wanted cars and taxi cars, and other things. Recently it was a motorcycle we bought the day of Ashton's christening. He carried that around a lot.

In Play and Reality he suggests that if you don't wean the child by 4 months, it will be harder, but we didn't have any trouble at weening the boys at 8 months because we used a bottle with formula and breast milk when Diana pumped, when she was tired.

The boys don't have a blanket or teddy bear they have consistently stuck with, though they have favored toys, cars, trains, things they could hold in their hands that represented our love for them in a tangible gift, and the comfort of playing and fun.

The have suffered through the vicissitudes of our work. Diana working and not me, then both of us, then not Diana and then both of us not working. But they seem pretty OK at the moment. They fight and whatnot, get on each other's nerves, try to hurt each other for past wounds. But for the most part I feel they are healthy and wholesome boys, which many good traits and strengths.

I'll end this post with an old web page with William as a baby when I graduated from NYU.