Thursday, January 12, 2006

Dear Jacob,

HOW, HOW, HOW in the name of all that is holy did you become a child that has a security blanket? How did this happen? I know that other kids have them. I am assuming that it is because their parents gave them the same blanket all the time. We did not do this. We didn't have the luxury. The first criteria for any blanket that came near you was if it was absorbent. I also liked them to match, but this was not always possible. You were a "super spitter" and no blanket lasted longer then 10 minutes in your clutches before it was off to the washer. You still spit and I still have to carry 3 blankets everywhere I go. I am so grateful for Carter's brand waffle weave blankets I could cry. They can hold GALLONS of spit up. They are cheap too, so occasionally when I don't have the heart to wash a full load of them, they go in the garbage. (readers....this is wasteful, I know, but don't try and pretend that you haven't once thrown away a onsie after an explosion when you are, say, at the mall or driving across country....) That is not the reason your middle name is Carter, but it is better then the real reason!!

Back to the point....you have to be patient with me. I am not a mom that is used to her children having "special" things that can't be replaced. I am a bit absent minded and not terribly organized. Just keeping track of the children is a victory in my book. When you were born, you started sucking your thumb and you have not stopped. I was so glad...I hate having to track down Dummy's (or Nuk's, or Binkies or whatever you call them). I figure you will always have your thumb, so less work for me. Thank you. I might have been tipped off by the fact that every time you put your thumb in your mouth, you start reaching for something to hold. Laundry (dirty or clean, you don't discriminate), washcloths, mom's shirt, Lauren's hair (your favorite in the car...she can't escape). But, you didn't care WHAT it was, as long as it was something. As of today, you care. Well, actually it was more like a few days ago, but you care.

Right now, you are screaming in your crib because apparently, you don't have the right blanket. It is in your father's car. I forgot to bring it in. From here on out I can look forward to one more thing to keep track of, one more thing to freak out about if it is lost, and one more step at bedtime. That is ok, because you are a pretty great kid. I just want to say THANK YOU that the blanket you chose just so happens to match the newly "muralized" nursery. For that, I forgive the rest.

Love,
Mom

P.S. We need a "name" for the blanket. Lauren calls it Lamby, Jacob calls it "gup gup" (but I think that is how he says his name right now). Any suggestions?

16 comments:

CKW said...

How about "becca's bane"?

Bek said...

MAK, I would get two but there are two problems.

The first one is that it is the quilt I got from Pottery Barn Kids as a gift (well, a gift I returned and exhanged for it anyway). It was 75$$.

The second problem is that they don't carry it any more!! It is the little green lamby quilt from their Chamois Lamby series. It has green rolling hills, sheep jumping over fences, etc. The sheep are made of a fuzzy material and that is what he likes to hold...maybe I can find one of those....

I gotta hand it to him, he has good taste. He want the EXPENSIVE blanket that matches....could he be more my child?

Carina said...

Bek,
I bought a really cute stuffed "Classic Pooh" for Guille. I thought, hey, I know kids get attached to things, and he can be attached to this! It's replaceable and, more importantly, REALLY ADORABLE. He'll look so cute carrying it around. And he did, he bonded with it, loved it, fed it easter cookies. And then, his great great Aunt bought him an ugly brown dog.

He loves that thing like it's chocolate. It is his constant companion. NOTHING I can do about it. I did make a few rules. It does NOT NOT NOT leave the house. It will go on vacation with us, but in regular life it doesn't leave the house. That is my rule for you: Blankie doesn't leave the house.
When it goes on vacation, it goes on my carry-on or my purse. I made the mistake once of checking it in our bag and wouldn't you know it, his blanket and dog were sent to some random location (not Pittsburgh where we were.) That was a horrible night.

Guille has a blanket he is quite fond of. He'll sometimes drag it around, but not like his dog. He calls it "Kiki," his pronunciation of Blankie.

I've heard of those things being called "Lovey" "Blankie" "Nuk" and "Thing."

Good luck, and KEEP checking EBAY for a duplicate.

Carina said...

! You should call it a "Linus" !

Bek said...

My friend Christi's son had a strange stuffed Koala that he loved. Once at the pediatritan, the doctor said that his boy had one too that he loved and had just lost it...they paid 50$$ on ebay to replace it...:-)

I will keep looking for the blankie....He does look like Linus...

Lisa said...

I'm with Carina: it does NOT leave the house. (except vacation time)

"Beaney," of course!

Julie said...

I guess I got lucky. Jacob liked to carry my silky underwear around the house - I think he got attached to holding it while nursing. So all I had to do was find a big ol' piece of similar fabric at Joann's and cut it down into small pieces.

$50, $75 to repleace a blanket? Ack!

Sister Pottymouth said...

My boys each have one of my old T-shirts as their lovey item. It saved our sanity when it was time to train them to go to sleep on their own and stay asleep through the night. I'd wear the shirt a couple of nights as part of my pajamas and then give it to them at night. It smelled like me (kinda yucky, I know), and it worked. We started calling the first one a Snuggle, and it stuck.

For son number three, we (by chance) had a dish towel that was the exact same color as his Snuggle, and just as soft. It's called the Fake Snuggle, and it stays in the diaper bag for emergencies. The real Snuggle stays at home.

Suzie Petunia said...

7-year-old Waverly still sleeps with the blanket her grandma gave her the week she was born. It used to be fleece, but probably doesn't qualify as such now- it is so thin! And a few months ago she burned 2 holes in it when she draped it over a lamp (thank heavens she didn't burn the house down) and I had to repair it with big pink patches of fleece. The blanket is appropriately named "Blue".

La Yen said...

We call ours the Nonnie--my cousins coined this phrase when they became to lazy to say "night night." I bought two right off of the bat--but she only gets them in bed--I learned this from my sister, Amy. She is so excited to see it that she doesn't notice we are sneaking out.
When I was little I had one I called "my tiny. special blanket."
bek--johnsongalan@yahoo.com

Lorien said...

I don't remember how we got rid of the blankie my daughter loved. I think I just hid it or something. But I have a cousin who had one that kept wearing too thin, so her mother would fold it in half and sew the two thicknesses together, so that it just kept getting smaller and smaller. I think it ended up about washcloth size. Her mom just told me that last year--her second year at college--she left it at home and, for the first time, didn't take it with her back to school. But not to worry. She is a very lovely, well adjusted girl. So good luck with Jacob's gup gup. And just remember, you can always fold it over and sew it if it wears thin.

Carina said...

My brother had a pillowcase that was kelly green. You can imagine the state of that pillowcase after ten years of weekly washings.

Bek said...

The little boy I tended while we were undergrads in NJ had a blanket he called "blue bumpy". When he was in 3rd grade, his mom finally cut it up and let him put little pieces of it in his sock while he was at school. That way, he had it with him, but he didn't really HAVE it with him in a way that would embarass him.

Good suggestions. It has been a few weeks and gup gup is in the wash (because apparently he needs to soak his entire bed every night--he is a tummy sleeper...anyone else have this problem?) and he has been crying for 45 minutes now. This is the child that slept through the night almost at birth....

I kind of want to stop this craziness right now...

Unknown said...

I know I'm late jumping into this, but I was smugly patting myself on the back for not having such a security item.

Then I realized that I've been sleeping with the same stuffed bear for over 20 years.

Yikes.

wendysue said...

Bek, oh my goodness, I thought Whitney was like Diabetic or something the way she pees throught everything EVERYNIGHT!! I'm glad to hear she's not the only one! She's a tummy sleeper too, until of course, 5 am everymorning when she wakes up screaming because she's soaked!

My girls "blankies" have always been the little Gerber cloth diapers. I would use them when I was nursing to catch all the dribbles so I guess they just got attached to them. And the best thing is I have about 15 of them that are identical!

Rachel said...

have you read owen by kevin henkes? cute story about love of blankies.

when i was 6(?) my dad told me that he would buy me a barbie if i got rid of my blanket, which was my one and only way of sucking my thumb. so the real motivation was to get me to stop sucking my thumb--my blankie was totally rags and shredded and at fhe one fateful monday nite, he opened the door on the wood stove, and i ceremoniously placed blankie (hand-knit by my mom) into the fire and watched it melt. talk about trauma.

we went to payless a few days later and i picked out a ring instead of the barbie.

note to self: blankie in fire=post traumatic stress disorder.