Baby Sarah coming home from the hospital with her mom and dad and "Blankie"
So, now on to the 'now day' part of my story!
Since I had such an attachment to my blankie, I wanted my kids to have a special blankie too! My mom, has made each of them a special blankie, and they all love their blankies! Some to the extreme!!!!! Ryan's blankie had been thru it all and back again!
Ryan snuggling his Blankie and Grandpa Rose! 2001
When we first moved into our house (and the fireplace still worked, that's another story!) on cold mornings Ryan would turn on the fireplace (gas) take his shirt off and rub his blankie all over his chest!(kinda like you would rub yourself with a towel after a shower) We'd ask him what he was doing and he told us he was 'Pa-chaying' (what ever that ment, I guess he was only 3 at the time). He just loved his blankie! When we went into sunbeams, the only way we could get him to stay was if he was able to take his blankie! At first he was allowed to hold it and love it, but then we moved on to having it just sit under his chair. Finally we were able to ween him of it at church altogether!!! A year or so ago he asked his Grandma Rose if she could make his blankie bigger for him, since her was growing taller and all. But you can't grow a blanket bigger so he has made do with the small one. It is Rags, as Blake would tell you, but Ryan still loves his blanket.
He is funny, he loves the feel of it and has to rub his face on it before he goes to school! If we want Ryan to do something he doen't want to do, all we have to do is threaten to take his blanket away! (I know bad parenting! but it works!!!) He takes his blanket where ever he goes in the house. This morning we found it on the kitchen table. Blake (who never had a 'special' blanket) just doesn't get the love of a blanket! The poor blanket is rags! Only one side is still bound together! There are holes all over it! It is a MESS! But my memories of my blanket and how it just wasn't the same scream out to me! What could I do to let him love his blankie a bit longer, without taking the blankieness of it away?
Just a side note: When we lived in California we started reading Kevin Henkes books. One of our favorites is Owen! It is about a little boy mouse who loves his blankie! It is an excellent book and fits very well into our family!!! We highly reccomend it!
So, back to the story of Ryan's Raggy Blankie. I though of doing what Owen's parent did in the story, but I thought there must be another way. After talking with Blake, we came up with 'the blankie pillow case'! I got out my sewing machine and sewed it into a reversable pillow case. I also mended all the holes! It is sitting on his bed, and we'll see how he reacts after school! Hopefully he'll love it! Oh . . . the Love of a Blanket!
Here is the finished 'blankie pillow case, both sides!
3 comments:
All of our kids have blankies too, only we call them "Teddy". Even McKenna. Comes from Kieran who couldn't say blankie, bless his heart. But his blankie had a big teddy bear on it and he could say that! So I would stand at one end of the hall, to get him to go to bed, and say, "Kieran whose this?" And he'd come running down the hall yelling, "Teddy!!!" Then I could grab him and put him in the crib or his bed. He he tricky mommy.
What a good idea to turn it into a pillow case, you will have to let me know how Ryan reacted to it.
I was a blankie girl, too. I had it until I was five and then my mom made me "throw" it away. She was hoping the thumb sucking habit would go with it. That didn't work, but anyway when I was ten I was looking through the linen closet and found my blankie I thought was long gone! I still have it in my cedar chest. My mom just kept sewing up the holes as they came. There's nothing like a blankie! Shaylee and Jaron both have special blankies, too.
The pillow idea is such a good idea! It is so cute!
I can relate to the blankie thing. All the kids in my family were the same. Willy left his at a gas station in the middle of nowhere in Oregon once and Carl had to drive pretty far to get it and mail it back to us, the sacrifices we make! the pillow case idea though is genius!
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