The Impostor

When Colin was 3 months old, a friend sewed 2 blue blankets for him, which I planned to use for him at daycare. I had 2 made so that one could always be "the backup." He never seemed overly interested in the blankets then, as he was a swaddle baby and was snugly wrapped up in a swaddle blanket when he slept.

But somehow these blue blankets endured, and now he sleeps with BOTH of them at night. And for naps.

Somehow today I was a bit of a novice at this whole parenting thing. I threw the blankets in the wash and put Colin down for his afternoon nap with a DIFFERENT blanket. "Surely he's not that attached," I thought.

25 minutes after putting him down for his nap he was still wide eyed and bushy tailed. When I went in and picked him up, I handed him the impostor blanket.

"Sniff, sniff." (He actually gave a good long, dramatic sniff of the blanket, as if to make a point.) And then he handed the impostor to me, as though I had to be kidding. I then tried a replacement impostor, which has a stuffed dog head sewed to one end with a tail sewed to the other end.

"Sniff, sniff." This sniff was followed by smiles that indicated he liked it, but was no sleepier than he was with the previous impostor. This blanket got a big hug, but then he ran to play with a toy in his room.

I hustled downstairs and threw the real McCoys in the dryer for a quick 15 minutes and then I went to rescue him from his extended playtime:

"Colin, your blankies took a bath and I bet we can find them down in Elliot's room." (The cat's room is the utility room, and thus is where the dryer was frantically drying his beloved loveys.)

As I opened the dryer, a beam of sunshine appeared and shined direct from the blankies to his suddenly very sleepy eyes. He grabbed each of the toasty-warm blue blankets and cuddled them into his arms while I picked him up and carried him and the TRUE blankies, direct to the land of nod.

Today I was a novice. The blue blankets will now get washed earlier in the day. However, something makes me think he sure did enjoy the warm feel as they came out of the dryer.