The Origins of Blankie

When I was young I had a bear. I drug that bear everywhere with me for years. Chris, though, was a blankie man. He had a blankie that had been patched beyond repair and barely resembled its former self. Finnegan has decided he will be a blankie man as well. He loves that blankie. But I am getting ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning.

It was a rainy day in late June 2010. I was hugely pregnant and deep into the nesting phase. I had already been off work for almost two months so the house was meticulously clean and organized, the nursery painted and I was bored. Throughout my pregnancy I had the overwhelming urge to make things for the baby. I wanted to knit him hats and socks and sew him little outfits and build him toys. The only problem was that I don't knit, I'm not handy and my sewing skills are rudimentary at best. Still I decided I would make Finn a quilt. I picked out some black and white fabric to match the nursery (in hindsight white may not have been the best choice, but it was meant to be decoration) and with my mom's help and her sewing machine I set out sewing dozens of tiny squares together in an intricate pattern (ok maybe it wasn't that intricate). I was adamant though that I would do all the actual quilting by hand. I bought a bright pink quilting ring and went at it. It took many many hours, there were several crooked lines but in the end it turned out not bad. I was pretty proud.

When Finn was a few weeks old and had started sleeping in his crib I used it to keep him warm at night. Now please don't call the parenting police, I know you aren't suppose to put blankets in with the baby but I felt to bad leaving him all uncovered. Blankie became part of everyday bed time routine, and well the rest is history. Now blankie is the best parenting tool there is. Finn will sleep anywhere, can be put to bed by anyone as long as he has blankie. Just seeing it invokes the thumb in month ready for bed pose. He spends his day trying to climb the stairs or escape the play room in order to get to his blankie. Because you see, as a general rule, blankie is reserved for bedtime or naps only so as not to loose its magic. People congratulate me on what a good sleeper Finn is and I humbly take their praises. In reality though I think it has more to do with blankie then with anything I have done.

Blankie has been there through teething, colds, long drives and our recent ER visit. As cliche and corny as it may sound I like to think that Finn feels all the love and effort I put into this blanket in preparing for his arrival. I definitely did not anticipate that he would form such a strong bond with it. The only problem with blankie is that, of course, he is one of a kind. I know most parents go out and buy replacement stuffed animals or blankets in case something happens and they are lost or damaged, but there is no replacement blankie. I don' even want to think about what would happen if blankie were lost. So I would like to end by saying thank-you blankie for all you have done and please please please be with us for a long time to come.