Lucy: "You think you're so smart with that blanket. What are you going to do with it when you grow up?"Linus: "Maybe I'll make it into a sport coat!"
-from "A Charlie Brown Christmas"
When we started talking about Thanksgiving a few weeks ago, and would ask Cubby who she was thankful for (I'm not sure whether she entirely understood what we were asking, but we gave her some examples and read her Dora Thanksgiving book a lot), 9 times out of 10 she'd say, "Bwankie!" Occasionally, she'd say, "Mommy and Daddy," but mostly...Blankie.
...a cozy complement to the butt-in-the-air position (Mommy will rue the day she stops sleeping like this)...
...a friend when Cubby's under the weather (we spent an entire day like this, and other than the fact that my baby was sick, I loved every second of it)...
...and is quite portable, having traveled often by car...
...and once by bike trailer!
In fact, even princesses need their blankies!
And here's a little family history for ya: When I was little, we lived in an apartment complex that caught fire one day. We had evacuated to the sidewalk across the street, and I cried for Blankie until my dad went inside and rescued it for me (the fire was out and he got the OK from the firemen first...Dad's sweet but not stupid!). Twenty-some years later, my mom took Cubby for a walk while babysitting one day, and discovered that Blankie II had fallen out of the stroller at some point. My dad was on his way over, and drove around until he found Blankie II on the sidewalk a couple of blocks from our apartment, and returned her to Cubby.
Grampy: Blankie Hero for two generations and counting!
Blankie became a fixture when Cubby was around 7-ish months old--I can't pinpoint it any closer than that, because at that time, Sleep Deprivation Induced Insanity had a tight grip on my soul, not to mention my memory for details. I do remember, though, that the first time we put it in her crib during the nightly Oh-My-God-Why-Won't-This-Baby-Go-To-Sleep ordeal, she hungrily shoved the corner in her mouth and stopped crying...and the rest, as they say, is history.
Blankie has been perfect for sucking on while sleeping (so much so that the pink around the corners and edges is now a lovely brown color, which means that pink dye must be in my daughter somewhere)...
...a cozy complement to the butt-in-the-air position (Mommy will rue the day she stops sleeping like this)...
...a friend when Cubby's under the weather (we spent an entire day like this, and other than the fact that my baby was sick, I loved every second of it)...
...the ideal accessory for the exersaucer...
...and is quite portable, having traveled often by car...
...and once by bike trailer!
In fact, even princesses need their blankies!
"Sometimes, Blankie, it's just you and me against the world."
"Nice try, Daddy!"
I must confess here that the Blankie addiction is probably genetic: I had a Blankie of my own, that started out white with yellow duckies on it, and took me from babyhood to (embarrassingly enough) my teen years, at which point it was a pilly gray "frame" with a hole in the middle big enough to walk through. In fact, I still have a piece of my Blankie in my jewelry box...this was the biggest non-holey piece I could cut from it:
How gross is that?
And just as I had my two favorite corners of Blankie--Soft Corner and Scratchy Corner--Cubby has an elaborate ritual of stuffing her favorite corner in her mouth, twisting it several times, and then sucking/chewing on it whenever she wants to feel cozy. Every day or two, we coax her into letting us give Blankie a bath to help stave off the mildew smell (ew!), and she says, "Buh-bye, Bwankie! Have a fun bath!" as she reluctantly tosses her into the washing machine and begins the long wait for her best friend to emerge.
And here's a little family history for ya: When I was little, we lived in an apartment complex that caught fire one day. We had evacuated to the sidewalk across the street, and I cried for Blankie until my dad went inside and rescued it for me (the fire was out and he got the OK from the firemen first...Dad's sweet but not stupid!). Twenty-some years later, my mom took Cubby for a walk while babysitting one day, and discovered that Blankie II had fallen out of the stroller at some point. My dad was on his way over, and drove around until he found Blankie II on the sidewalk a couple of blocks from our apartment, and returned her to Cubby.
Grampy: Blankie Hero for two generations and counting!
And so, even though Blankie gets at least as many kisses and "I wuv you!"'s from Cubby as we do, we happily consider her a part of the family. I doubt Grammy had any idea what she was starting when she crocheted that little pink baby gift!
It's so funny that she puts blankie in her mouth to relax! Both of my kids have blankies too! Last year, when ds started preshool, it had to be in his backpack while he was at school. As soon as we would get in the car after school, blankie came out. He rubs blankie around his eyes to relax. dd's blankie gets kisses (from her) and gives us kisses too! She rubs her blankie around her mouth to relax.
ReplyDeleteMy little brother also had a blankie. I saved it and gave it to his dd a few years ago. She loves it!
I'd also like to give a shout out to cubby's grampy for saving the day twice!
That's so sweet! Madison totally has something like that except it's a little ladybug thing called Dolly. But aren't we glad they have something that puts them to sleep? That's all I really care about! :-)
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