I remember being one of you. I saw kids with their Blankee or heard mom's talk about the attachment and all I could picture was Linus from Charlie Brown and I just never understood the draw to a piece of fabric. I mean, I understood pacifiers, the sucking is soothing to a little person; bottles, they provide food; stuffed animals are snugly; thumbs, well those are like a pacifier you can't lose; but the Blankee. What is with the Blankee?! Then I had Gage. Sweet, sweet Gage who is so VERY attached to his Blankee.
It turns out that the draw of the Blankee is in it's versatility. Most are very soft which makes them quite snugly (Gage's has the most awesome fuzzy, soft fabric ever), if you are cold you can cover up with it, if you want to block the world out you just put it over your face (this function can be used to help you go to sleep or if you are generally mad at the world and want to pretend that no one else exists), you can throw it over your head and pretend to be a ghost, you can play with a corner or tag while you fall asleep (the way some kids play with their hair), it can be a cape . . . the list goes on.
These days, Gage primarily only needs his Blankee when he is tired or when he gets really mad/upset. He taps the "big" corner of his Blankee against his upper lip or repeatedly taps the "big" corner with his index finger while sucking the two middle fingers of his left hand. This can calm him down or help him go to sleep within seconds. Now, I am aware that he needs to quit sucking his fingers, but it's just not a battle I can fight right now. Spend just a few minutes in my home and you will know why.
Gage is awesome! He is a great kid who is funny, silly, goofy and playful, but also very serious, very particular and very emotional. Gage can go from laughing to crying in under a second. It does not take much to set him off either, like the dent in his yogurt cup today (did I mention he was particular . . . maybe more like bordering on OCD). It is getting better as he gets older and he becomes ever so slightly more reasonable, but it can still strike like lightening out of thin air and that's where the Blankee and the fingers come into play. He may go off like a bomb, but he calms just as quickly as he explodes as long as he has his vices! With preschool tempers flying left and right around here, we don't snub our nose at anything that helps calm a kid down quickly!
Today, Gage was fine without his Blankee and then 1:30 hit. We were having lunch with Daddy and he was getting kind of emotional. The kids don't take naps anymore, because they don't go to bed if they do, but they still have a little mid-afternoon period when I can tell that their body is not sure if it can go on without a nap. This mid-afternoon mood is probably the most obvious in Gage, he is usually the first one asleep at night and he usually spends 30-45 minutes in the afternoon sitting quietly alone with his Blankee. By the time we got home at 2:00 he was desperate to find his Blankee and sit on the recliner for a few minutes of quiet time. Unfortunately, his Blankee was nowhere to be found.
When he first came to me and said he couldn't find his Blankee, I wasn't concerned. I knew he had had it this morning and I knew it had not left the house, plus I was really doubting that he had made much effort to look for it. I sent him on his way and told him to look harder. Well, he did and he still came up empty handed . . . so I started looking. I looked in all the usual spots, NO BLANKEE! I started looking in some of the more creative hiding places the kids use, NO BLANKEE! I even checked the car, despite the fact that I knew it had not been in the car, NO BLANKEE! I was beginning to panic and Gage was in full blown crisis mode. We had to leave to get Jackson from school and take him to a Lego Robotics class (sounds cool huh). As we were leaving I told myself that I would probably find it as soon as we got home, it was probably somewhere obvious and I would laugh at myself for not looking there in the first place.
Mercifully, Gage fell asleep on the way to pick up Jackson. He ended up sleeping for over an hour in the car while Jackson was at his class (actually they all fell asleep, we usually play at the park while Jackson is in class, but not today). When we got home, Gage had gotten enough rest, that he was recharged and didn't need his Blankee, but I knew it was only a matter of time! I also knew that Gage would accept no substitutes because just yesterday while I was washing his Blankee, he was constantly asking for it because he needed his quiet time. He even went as far as to ask for Westin's Blankee (all my kids have one, Gage is just the only one with a significant attachment). I dug out Westin's Blankee and Gage found a corner and put his fingers in his mouth. About two seconds later, he threw the Blankee down and exclaimed, "This corner doesn't work, it doesn't feel right!"
I asked Jackson and the other kids to look for the Blankee . . . again, we came up empty handed. I asked each of them if they had touched, played with or hidden the Blankee (they all know that touching the Blankee is the quickest way to get to Gage and they use it sometimes). I was most interested in Brooklyn's answer to this line of questioning, afterall, she is typically at the top of the suspect list. She actually confessed. She said she had hidden it, but couldn't really tell us where. (I should add that every time I asked Gage where he saw it last, he gave me different answer; the answers of 4 year olds are only so reliable.) Upon further questioning Brooklyn told me, "I put it in the laundry room and then I put in the bathroom under the towel, but I moved it and put it under the frog towel." With spirits lifting, I ran to the bathroom only to find my hopes dashed as I came up empty handed AGAIN. I felt so certain that this was my answer, I mean, she was so specific. I asked her to look me in the eye and tell me if she had hidden the blanket, to which she complied and told me "No, I didn't hide it." The child cannot look me in the eye if she is lying, so I knew this was the truth.
At this point I was really starting to sweat. I had looked in every logical place I could think of and even in some not so logical places. I had searched many areas multiple times. I started reciting the St Anthony prayer for lost items over and over:
St Anthony, St Anthony
Please look around
Something's been lost and must be found.
Jackson thought I was crazy. All of a sudden, I turned around and saw a bucket in the playroom that I had not looked in. As a matter of fact, it was the ONLY bucket that I had not looked in! There was a puzzle box sticking out the top and I immediately knew that when I lifted up the puzzle I was going to find the elusive Blankee. Sure enough, it was there in the bucket, sitting on the floor, in an obvious place, just as i originally suspected. The bucket is the same navy blue color as the Blankee, so it was not noticeable as you walked past. I have to admit to lifting the Blankee up in the air and shouting "YES!" I was dreading bedtime without it, as a matter of fact I was doubtful that Gage would even go to sleep without it. My over-exuberance drew the attention of my children who were playing a game on the floor. When Westin saw it, he immediately smiled and said, "I put it in there. It was so funny!" . . . All that worry, all that panic, and about 2 hours or more of searching and he knew where it was! I probably should have been irritated, but I was so relieved that I actually laughed!
As my mom said: All's well that ends well!
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| My sweet boy, sleeping peacefully with his Blankee tonight! Gage's Prayers Tonight: Please help people not to lose or lost things Don't let kids have too much toys, they should give them to kids who don't have any And kids who have too much stuffed animals should give some to kids who don't have stuffed animals or mommies and daddies. Thank you for helping my mommy find my Blankee Amen |
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