The blankie story continued

As I’ve looked back on some of the stories I posted in the very early days of the blog, I have to smile. Some of the things I wrote about I had already forgotten and I was grateful that I had a permanent record to look back on. When the boys were really small, I tried to write down things in a journal that they could one day have. Rion’s is pretty full and Torii’s consists of about 20 pages. Then my sister Laurie got me hooked on blogging and just before we welcomed Cordelia into the world, this blog was launched. It’s been great to keep family up to date about the things going on in our lives and it’s fun to look back on all those memories. I only wish I could have been blogging since I was pregnant with Rion. But once in awhile I’ll remember something about those pre-blog days, like Rion’s blankie and have to share. And not to steal Paul Harvey’s line, but here’s the rest of the story…..

I’m happy to say that my niece’s blankie was found. It seems she hid it in the file cabinet and Kelly found it while she was going to retrieve a file. One of the reason I never bothered to call Menards in search of the blankie is that I didn’t want to look for it anymore. We spent countless hours searching for that blankie because Rion always hid it. It was a good thing he had numerous shreds of it. We kept a stockpile of the shreds and whenever we couldn’t find his blankie, we would just take out a shred. Every night before bed, we would have to check all of Rion’s favorite hiding spots in search of the blankie before bedtime. If we couldn’t find it, it only meant he had found a new hiding spot. I usually found the new hiding spots while cleaning or like my sister, while looking for something else. When that happened we would just add it to the stockpile until the need for a blankie piece arose again.
In some ways I really miss those blankie days. Maybe I just miss the days when Rion was small and he still fit in my arms. On the other hand, I’m really glad I don’t have to look for that damn blankie anymore.

A blankie memory

The other day my sister posted on her Facebook page that her daughter had lost her blankie. She called the stores that they had been to, but had no luck in finding the blankie. I felt so bad for my little niece, but it brought back some memories of Rion’s blankie.


Of all the kids, Rion is the only one to really have a blankie. Cordelia has a favorite blanket, but we never have to carry it with everywhere we go like Rion had to. Rion’s blankie was in fact a Snoopy receiving blanket. It was much softer than your standard receiving blanket. Rion loved to twirl it between his fingers when I fed him or as he fell asleep, thumb in the mouth and blanket tightly gripped. Thankfully, we had two of these blankies as one always seemed to be in the wash. However, these repeated washings did a number on the blankies and they began to fall apart. Soon, we had a pile of shreds. One of the blankies still had a pretty good size square to it, but one day Rion lost it in Menards. I didn’t even bother calling to look for it. It was so ragged, I’m sure someone just threw it away. Plus, I was secretly happy to not have to keep track of that blankie anymore. Besides, Rion was getting old enough to give up the blankie. I did look for a replacement blankie, but I have never seen a receiving blanket like he had. A couple years after losing his blankie, Rion saw a picture of himself with his blankie in his hands. “Ohhhh,” he said, “I miss my blankie.” After all that time I still felt bad for his loss. It was really the first time he felt the loss of something really important to him. I still have a few of the blankie shreds hidden safely away in his keepsake box. There were many times I wanted to give in and give him a piece of the blankie. Even years later as he looked at that photo I wanted to tell him I still had part of his blankie left. Someday, he'll get it back.