My blanket baby

Since we are going to be out of town next week for Spring Break, I am giving you a bonus post today. I will be not posting on my blog for a week or so. I hope you will come back and read some posts that you may have missed before! I'll be back with lots of pictures and stories from our trip, and from Rebekah's 12th birthday! Have a great break!

My Bethany, age 2, is the first of my children to LOVE her pink, thermal blanket and carry it around with her. It is nearly always dirty, as she drags it all over the house, in the garage and outside sometimes. It is kinda sweet to see her snuggling with her blanket at different times during the day. She is a snuggly girl, and has been known to snuggle on my lap or even Grandpa's lap for an hour or more. But always with her blanket, which she calls, "nigh, nigh". She uses this blanket to sleep with in her toddler bed, and it is the only blanket that she wants to cover her. She likes to hold the satiny edge and rub it with her fingers. She doesn't like to sleep with anything on her feet, either. It is over a yard square, and so cozy...

 Sometimes she reminds me of Linus from Peanuts, with his blanket...

Maybe if she carries it around all the time, she could use it as a cape like Linus does. Or she could use it to wrap around the bottom of a sad little Christmas tree to give it the final touch... :-D

Another book that is about a boy with a blanket is called "Owen" by Kevin Henkes. In the book the parents can't get rid of Owen's blanket, and they try all kinds of things. The neighbor lady gives them ideas. Toward the end of the story, Owen's mother takes his blanket, and cuts it into small squares so he can have a bunch of handkerchiefs like the neighbor lady is always waving. It's a cute story, if you haven't read it with your kids, you may need to find it at your local library.

I may have to cut up her blanket into handkerchiefs in a few years...

I understand her in her blanket love, somewhat, since I also had a pink thermal blanket that I slept with as a child. It had satiny edges just like Bethany's blanket. Actually, all of my kids have these thermal blankets. They were a gift from my Aunt Marcia when each of them were born. She stitched their name in a Precious Moments type font, (and I LOVE Precious Moments, that was our nursery theme!) and a character on each blanket, such as a bunny, duck or bear. All three of my girls have pink ones, and Caleb got a blue one. When I saw my Aunt last summer, she said she couldn't find the blankets anymore, and might have to make something else for the new babies in our family (and I have 50 cousins, so there have been about 100+ babies born to my cousins, this was no easy task!). I have heard that during the large family Christmas party, several babies and kids have their blankets there and it is a good thing that they have their names on them! :-D (We don't usually attend since it is far away in Chicago!)


Here are some of my favorite pictures of Bethany snuggling with her blanket...

snuggling by the fire last summer...

playing football? with her blanket outside...

All wrapped up!

So sweet!

 Maybe I'll let her keep her blanket a while, it is such a comfort to her, and it makes her seem more like a baby... Eventually I'll have to restrict it to her bed only, but for now, I don't mind washing it a few extra times...And hunting for it before she goes to sleep, just for my sweet blanket baby, who will soon grow up!