For any parents out there that has a kid that had a stuffed animal that they loved a lot that ended up needing to be replaced: did they have a hard time adjusting to the new one? Henry has gotten hooked on this blue bear, and we preemptively bought a spare to put in the closet, but I'm wondering if we should once in a while switch the bears, so they both wear down at the same rate. I don't know if there would be a problem if his current bear got ragged, and then got lost, only to be replaced with a brand new one. Do kids even notice that kind of thing? This is the first time Henry has really gotten hooked on a certain toy.
My other (probably silly) concern is switching the bears back and forth, I kind of feel like I'm, I dunno, tricking my kid or something. He would think that it was the same bear, and have memories attached to it, but it would actually be two different bears. So in 20 years or whatever, if he still has one of the bears, he will have memories attached to the bear that he has in 20 years, but not all the memories will be attached to that bear. Maybe that is silly, I dunno. I guess the only thing that matters is the memories Henry has, not so much the object itself. But at the same time, I'm 28 now, and I still miss my little stuffed bear sometimes, even though I haven't seen it in at least 10 years. Good ol' Judgar.
