Softie

Those of you who know us well know that our family of five is more than meets the eye. There is a sixth member of our family -- Chicory, our chocolate lab who lives in the backyard. (Nope, no dogs in my house!) And then there is a seventh member, who is in a lot of ways like a fourth child -- Softie, Micah's blanket.

A few months before Micah's first birthday, he started cuddling the the burpees, falling asleep by sucking his thumb and rubbing them on his face. If he liked the old and stained burpees that much, I figured he would love the cute little square silky/soft security blanket things that had been sitting in a drawer waiting for someone to express an interest. I was right -- we soon needed to bring one with us anytime we went somewhere for several hours, such as church. Somewhere in the process, the name Softie was born, generically referring to whichever little blanket was being used at the time.

Then a vicious stomach bug ravaged our family when Micah was about thirteen months old. He ended up in the hospital for three nights due to dehydration. We of course, knew we needed to bring a Softie or two with us -- but since we had all been sick there was only one clean Softie left. Micah cuddled it all the way to the hospital...and then promptly puked all over it in the admissions office. Uh oh.

When Bret got us all situated, he went home to clean up the other Softies, and then stopped at Target to buy a new one to get us through until the laundry was done and he could bring it to us. They did not have any cute little baby-sized squares; just actual blankets, blue silk on one side and soft blue raised dots on the other. It was love at first cuddle. He cuddled it so much during those first few days that he gave himself a contact rash on his upper lip. Softie stepped up a notch in importance, and we could no longer go anywhere without him -- even to the next room in the house. Not wanting to get stuck again with a dirty Softie, I stopped by Target and picked up another one.

We now have four Softies. One lives in the van (in case we forget to bring one with us or something like a spill happens to it), two live in the closet (ideally, anyway...actually they are usually somewhere in the laundry!) ready for immediate use, and one is actually being carried around cuddled. Softie is so important that Micah's teachers at school and church won't take him without it.

Well, today we went to WalMart. Micah sat in his seat sucking his thumb and cuddling with softie, rubbing the tag on his nose all the way there. Then as we were getting out, he got distracted by an old cookie or something gross on the floor of the van and left Softie in his seat. "Woop! You better get Softie, Micah," I said.
"No. You get him."
"Excuse me!" (Ooooh, talking to me like that makes me mad!) "You don't talk to your Mommy that way. If you want to take Softie into WalMart you can get him. If you don't crawl back there and get him yourself, you will not have Softie in WalMart."
"No. I not want Softie in WalMart."
"Okay," I gulped. Was I really ready to try this? Luckily we only really needed a few things. We'd grab them first so that we could run out if the situation was getting out of hand. "We'll leave Softie in the van."

He did it. We got the few things we really needed, plus a few more that weren't quite as pressing, and it wasn't until the very end that he asked for Softie and started whining a little bit. I reminded him of the deal, and that was all it took. He made it all the way back out to the van with no break downs.

I'm not sure if I was more relieved or sad. My baby just made it without Softie for an hour -- and not because I made him or because there was something really exciting and distracting going on. It was because he didn't want or need it. Gulp, blink, blink.

We got back to the van, though, and Softie was cuddled the whole way home. I'm sure we are a very long way from being done with Softie. But it is unmistakable that my little blondie is growing up...