Bye, bye, blankie...

Before O was even born, my Aunt Kay crocheted a blanket just for her... baby-sized, a soft light blue, just right to wrap our new baby girl in.  We had a whole stash of similar blankets... not all hand-made, but a collection of colors, levels of softness, big ones, little ones, etc.  Over time, O decided which one was her favorite.  From the very beginning her "blue blankie" was the one she liked best.

As a toddler, we did not go anywhere without the blue blanket... It traveled anywhere we went...daycare, trips out of town, to the doctor, to the grocery store.  Blue blanket was O's constant companion, providing warmth, comfort, and a friend to cuddle with; and was the only thing guaranteed to make O feel better when she was tired or sick.  Blue blanket has taken years of abuse, as well...it has been washed more than any other item in our house, and has also been thrown up on more than anything else in our house.

Following the breakup of our household, blue blanket became the most "chased after" item...there were a number of trips made by one or the other of us to pick up or deliver the missing blanket so that O could go to sleep.  Out of habit, we became accustomed to making sure that the favorite blanket went back and forth between our houses, in O's backpack.  Even O knew enough to ask if her blanket was packed.

As our time at the daycare grew shorter, and 5K loomed in our future, I started to worry about how we were going to "break things off" between O and her blanket.  And then a strange thing started to happen... I noticed that while I still made sure that blue blanket went back and forth between our houses, and that O never went to sleep without it, SHE stopped asking for it...she stopped needing to have it with her.  When I asked O if she was going to be okay at 5K without her blanket at rest time, she just looked at me..."that's okay, mama, I don't need it for rest time".

So, here we are, three weeks into 5K...  Blue blanket has essentially been abandoned.  O has moved on... she is a hot-shot kindergartener now, and too old for things like blankets at bedtime.  In a fit of my own sentimentality, I have been putting blue blanket in her bed anyway, after she goes to bed, just in case...