The Tale of the Soft Blanket

As I've mentioned before, Connor is a blankie baby through and through. Car rides, grocery store trips, sleeping is all made possible and bearable because of his precious "B". Well on a trip to Indiana this summer to visit my parents, my Mom bought him a new super soft blankie. If I could have this blanket in adult size it would be on the top of my Christmas wish list. One side is the standard soft side and the other side it a lambs wool-like super super soft your want to go to sleep side. Ah yes, this was the blankie to replace all blankies. Of course this new blankie became Connor's favorite instantly. After a few months of washing it and realizing how hard it was to get it away from him to wash it, I decided to buy a second, identical blanket as a trade-off and emergency blankie (in the emergency that we lose the other one, because believe me it would be an EMERGENCY!) I didn't realize though that the first blanket had gradually lost some of its softness due to washing. So when I bought the new one, Connor was with me, and he loved it and wouldn't let it go. Last night while Byron was giving Connor a bath, I took the two blankies in his crib and replaced them with the washed old favorite blankie. As soon as Connor got out the bath, he wanted the blankie. When he got it, he turned it over to find his favorite side. Feeling that it wasn't his super soft blankie, he threw it on the ground and held his hand out and asked for "B". We couldn't help but laugh and go get it out of the laundry basket. I was slightly panicky though because I thought, "Am I going to have to buy a new blanket every time it looses it's softness?" Crazy thought I know, but I was toying with it. When I said this to Byron he gently said, "How about we use fabric softener?" Ah yes! I was able to rest easy that night knowing I wouldn't have to incorporate an extra 15 dollars into the budget every month for a new blanket. My plan to buy fabric softener today and then wash the blanket would have worked great if I hadn't walked into a pile of well, you know, when I went to get him up this morning. Poor thing was pointing to it and holding his hands out to me like ,"Save me mom, get me out of here!" Thankfully Byron was still home, so he took care of Connor while I worked on taking care of the crib sheet, pillow case, blankets and toy dog..it all needed to be washed immediately. However, on my way down to throw it in the wash, I thought, "Oh no, I can't wash the blanket yet, what if it looses its softness, then what am I going to do?" So, totally sweaty from working out, mascara left over from the day before under my eyes, and lovely breathe, I knocked on our neighbor's door to see if they had frabric softener. They didn't but the had dryer sheets, I said I'd take one. I think they think I'm slightly crazy, hey you might think I'm slightly crazy too. So I wash the stuff, throw the blankie in the dryer with the dryer sheet and lovingly give Connor his still soft blankie. But wait, what is this? This blankie is being rejected also? Apparently the smell from the dryer sheets was not satisfactory. As he now had no other alternative, he grudgingly took it. So, then we were at the drugstore later on that morning looking for scent-free fabric softener when the bowels moved once again. (Teething is throwing us off our game at the moment). No problem, I had a diaper and wipes. I find the restroom (it was disgusting by the way) and find there's no changing table. Great. I saw a free-standing roll of papertowel that I grabbed and we went out into the tiny hall (we took up the whole space) while I rolled out the papertowel for Connor the lay on while I changed his diaper. He of course wanted to roll off the makeshift changing table so I offered him, what else? Candy! I pulled out Smarties and gave him one at a time while I quickly tried to change a messy, stinky diaper. Good times, good times. I was however, able to purchase a scent free fabric softener and I have successfully washed and retained the softness to our all important blankie. A mother's love, it's powerful stuff.:)