Our little Linus

They say that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and I am a believer. When I was little I was attached to a silky pink blanket; I dragged it everywhere with me until the fated day that my mom accidentally melted it in the dryer. I was crushed until I discovered that rubbing my mom's slip between my fingers provided the same sensory satisfaction. It was not uncommon for me to stick my hand up my mother's skirt at church to get a feel of her slip. On weekdays, her slip became my favorite companion as I ventured out to play.

I am now getting my comeuppance as Oliver is hopelessly attached to his blue blanket. He won't go to sleep without it and it is the ultimate comfort when he falls down or gets and "ouchy." Sometimes (as you can see from the picture) it even doubles as a scarf (I figure that is better than letting him drag it around on the ground).

I have never made the mistake of melting it in the dryer, but I did notice a while back that it was beginning to wear a bit thin. Terrified of what might happen when the blanket turned to shreds I began searching for a replacement. I searched all of the stores and scoured the Internet in search of the exact same blanket, but was not successful. I bought him a blanket made from the same kind of material, but he turned up his nose at it. I had pretty much given up when I happened upon the exact same blanket still in its brand new packaging at a garage sale over the summer. I happily paid the one dollar they were asking (without ever mentioning that I would have happily paid fifty.) I decided to hold off making the switch until it became absolutely necessary. I suppose that in Ollie's case my slips and underwear were never in any real danger, but it sure is a comfort to know that I have a backup! In my mind, that blanket remains my best garage sale purchase ever (and I have done a whole lot of garage-saling during our sojourn in graduate school.)