Is it a Lovey?

Many children develop an attachment to a particular object as a young child. They want to carry it around and hug on it and it comforts them when they're distressed. A "lovey", so it's called.
For Corban, it was a little black lab puppy that strongly resembled our dog. We had tried to get him to be attached to several other stuffed animals for months, but he had no interest in anything stuffed until his grandparents gave him the puppy when he was 13 months old. Corban loved Pup Pup devotedly, carried him around all day, couldn't sleep without him, and certainly didn't travel without him. That lasted three entire years! Now Corban is attached (thankfully to a lesser extent) to his little golden retriever Webkinz, Dakota, that Aunt Sarah gave him last Thanksgiving. In fact, he told me today that he plans on keeping Dakota until he's a grown-up.
Marissa never developed an attachment to a stuffie as a baby/toddler, but she has adored baby dolls for a long time and has certain ones that she insists on carrying around all day. She kind of rotates which ones are her favorites, but she's protective of all of them. She sleeps with at least five dolls. It's a crowded toddler bed, let me tell you.
Annika, now she dances to the beat of her own drum. She likes her cozy blankets and a sweet pink dog in her bed, but you know what really makes her happy?
You'll never guess.
Socks.
That's right. Socks. It doesn't matter who they belong to or what size, color, or even how clean they are, she adores socks. When I'm folding laundry, she grabs the socks. When Grant is changing out of his work clothes, she attacks his socks. (Remember the crawling video I posted? She was motivated to crawl to get one of his socks.)
Yesterday she mananged to snag one of Corban's socks on the floor of his room and was delightedly playing with it, chewing on it, waving it around, etc. I wasn't too happy about that, as the sock was not exactly on the clean side. I took it away from her and she wasted no time in letting me know she was extremely agitated, in fact, downright MAD.
I tried to pacify her as I changed her for bed, giving her a little cloth diaper I had in her dresser. She took one look at it and threw it to the ground, letting out a scream of rage. Okay, what was I thinking?
I grabbed a tiny purple sock of hers that had fallen to the floor and handed it to her. Instantly, she recognized it as the wonder it is, a SOCK, and beamed. I'm not kidding, the child grinned through her tears and was immediately her normal cheerful self. She took the sock to bed with her and was clutching it in her little fist when I went to get her this morning.
Now, I don't let her carry it around all day, but this afternoon she had quite a bit more fun with it.
It's amazing.

Note the sock clutched in her hand.


Let's see if the sock will go on there.


And of course she can crawl without letting go of it....


And pull up without dropping it.....


And it's always good for tasting now and then.

Now, the fact that she finds socks appealing isn't necessarily a bad thing. I mean, they're cheap, easily washed and replaced, and for now, she doesn't care about particulars. Never mind that it is a little more socially acceptable for kids to carry around blankets or stuffed animals/dolls.

It's probably just a short-lived phase, anyways.