A tiny cloth doll gives the biggest yawn in the world — and it is catching.
Every night Mira’s little cloth doll, Nunu, gave the biggest yawn in the world. “If you yawn, I must yawn too,” laughed Mira — and she did, a great big sleepy yawn.
So Nunu yawned again, on purpose, until Mira’s eyes grew heavy and warm. That is how a good doll helps you fall asleep: one yawn at a time, until morning.
Cloth dolls like Nunu are the oldest and most widespread kind of doll in the world, stitched from scraps of fabric long before any factory made a toy. Because they are soft, safe and cheap to make, almost every culture has some version of the home-made rag doll passed from a parent’s hands to a child’s.
Child-development researchers call a beloved doll like this a “comfort object” or “transitional object” — something a small child holds onto that stands in for a parent’s presence. A soft, familiar doll at bedtime is one of the gentlest and most universal parenting tools there is, found in nurseries on every continent.