Natey at 7 weeks...
...3 months
...13 months
...20 months
...2 1/2 years
Does anyone notice a trend here?? Yep, the boy has had this green "bankalee" since he was born. I noticed he was becoming attached to it right around a year old. After I got over the hilarity that I, a blankie sucker in my childhood, had birthed a fellow blankie sucker, I realized what I had to do....run immediately to Target and buy more! I had one special blankie when I was growing up. My mom literally had to pry it out of my hands to wash the thing. When a kid sucks on a blanket, it doesn't end up with the freshest smell after 1 or 2 days. My blankie was in tatters by the time my mom finally made me throw it out. I knew if I could get a few of them, I could rotate them without issue. Then a problem arose.
I went to Target and they only had 2 left. One was exactly the same and the other looked the same but had a slightly different texture. I figured he wouldn't notice and bought them anyway. Yeah, he noticed. He completely turned his nose up at replacement bakalee number 3, but number 2 was happily added to the club. I figured we could get away with having 2. He could use one while I washed the other.
Fast forward to age 3 1/2 and we're at his cousin's house (whose mom bought him the first blankie) and she had tried the whole replacement blankie thing too, but her daughter didn't want anything to do with the newcomer. To my surprise it was exactly the same as the 2 blankets that he loves. I figured I could just bring it home and slip it into the rotation. No deal. We even tried to tell him that it was his bankalee that he had left at his cousins a while ago, but he was not having it. I washed it and tried to sneak it in. One sniff of the blanket and he started the protest. Apparently kids who suck on their blankets know their scent. Ewwww.
It was then that I hatched my master plan. I will assimilate this blankie into the rotation without him even realizing it. I started out by washing it several times with his other blankets just to get the other smell out. Then I took it a step further. I took one that was due to be washed and I rolled it up with the impostor blankie. I let it sit like that for a few hours. Then I washed them again. I did this a total of 4 different times. I'm nothing if not persistent. Then I washed all 3 of them together and gave him the new one. He took it like it was his own. Score one point for me!
I guess in a way a child is like a mother cat...you can trick it into loving an impostor if it has the right smell.
Maddy has that EXACT same blanket. She went thru a phase where she couldn't live without it, but, that seems to have passed.
ReplyDeleteOur issue, in my house, is Madaline's beloved bear. It's a "build-a-bear" and God help me should it ever come up missing. She'd rather take comfort from her bear than from either my husband or myself if she bonks her head, the cats scratch her, etc. And, I was looking at bear the other day, and she's starting to look rather tattered...I'm hoping I can take her back to the store (2 hours away) and get some more stuffing in her.
Haha! The things we do to please our babies!!
ReplyDeleteHa, I did the exact same thing with Acadia's pink blankie... but by the time I got to Target they only had a white one with pink polka dots. Which she gladly accepted when I showed it to her, ALONG with her pink blankie. She immediately wanted both and has since carried TWO everywhere... and Target no longer has either one. So I am forced to wash them immediately when she gets up in the morning and, since we don't use a dryer, she typically naps with 2 damp blankets!
ReplyDeleteLOL - sneaky momma!
ReplyDeleteI'm just now getting worried... Itty Bit has never been attached to anything - and suddenly has decided that he loves his tiny baby blanket. UGH! I better go try to find another!
I love all those pictures of Natey!
zora is attached to her blankie in a big way. it's a receiving blanket. luckily, those things come in packs of 4. we have a rotation going. just this morning, both kids were on my lap and kellan sneezed a snot bubble out of his nose. zora promptly wiped it with her blankie. i promptly threw it in the hamper and whipped out a clean one.
ReplyDeletekellan has puppy, a small blanket with a dog head in the middle (that sounds very godfather-ish). we have 2, but they're not the same. luckily, he will accept either one but prefers the "original."
ya know, i'm thinking a blog post is in the making here...
If only I could find a replacement blanket for T. Her blanket was hand made by a friend's mom, and the only way I can wash the nasty thing is to sneak it out of her clutch in the middle of the night. And then the next morning I hear awful protests that her blanket "smells clean!" The horror of a clean blanket! And should I dare even admit that she uses a stray string to stick up her nose as "comfort".
ReplyDeleteYou are ONE SMART LADY! Love it!
ReplyDeleteMental note for the future...buy multiple of whatever thing baby gets attached too! :)
Great advice.
We had similar trickery back at the farm when getting one bunny to accept and raise a foster baby bunny....dab of vanilla on each baby, dab of vanilla on mommy bunny's nose. Worked every time.
ReplyDeleteYes, I would love to see you dabbing vanilla on Natey's nose...;)
L.
You are persistent and inventive! We lost Sienna's blankey at a hotel and it was horrible - so with Cara I had more than one blankey for her. Same with Brennan - he has two. Of course Corban can't POSSIBLY be easy - no - he latched on to a one of a kind hand sewn random blanket that we found and borrowed at my IL's house. It's falling APART and he's so sad about that!
ReplyDeleteWow, you went to some great lengths to make sure it was accepted into the "litter" - ha! Love all these pictures of him with his "bankalee". :)
ReplyDelete