THE TAG

Young children from babies through toddlerhood find absolute comfort in the smallest and sometimes oddest things. Mothers, even when we know how weird the items are, let our babies have these items because it's the only thing that may keep your child calm and let us keep our sanity. Whether it's a short car ride to run errands or a 7 hour car trip that takes them across two states, this one item can make a terrible trip very pleasant.

For a shower gift back in August 2003 before Cassie was born. A family friend gave me a very cute white fleece blanket that is covered in colorful pastel teddy bears. This blanket became Cassie's security blanket and not because of the teddy bears, but because of the tag that was sewn to one corner of the blanket.

When she was rocked to sleep, fussy, or crying because she hurt herself Cassie would find the tag and rub it gently across her face and over her nose. It brought instant calmness to Cassie. The first thing she will ask for when she gets into her car seat is her blankie (and then the nook) and when you give her the blanket she will turn it around and around until she comes to the corner with the tag and she will start rubbing the tag on her nose and we can drive for hours.

She gets upset when we wash the blanket. She's constantly looking for it and asking where the blankie is. Sometimes she gets so upset that she will even cry and check the dryer several times to see if the dryer is running and her blankie is still in there.

Today one of the worse things possible happened and I blame it all on my mom (well, I don't hold her totally responsible but I have to give her grief about it because she said it). A few weeks ago Cassie was having a bad moment cause she was waiting for her blankie to get out of the dryer. The dryer soon quit and I gave Cassie the blankie and she immediately hunted for the tag. My mom, watching from the dining area said, "Boy kid are we ever in trouble if that tag ever falls off your blanket". And that is exactly what happened.

Cassie was watching Tarzan and running the tag from her blankie through her hands. I was on the couch behind her and I heard this faint snap sound and new right away what it was. Cassie sat up, looked at the tag in her one hand and then checked out the corner of the blankie in the other. She turned around to face me and said, "mommy I broke it" and she started to cry. It wasn't a little fussy cry, it was a loud sobbing/gasping cry and her eyes were big and her face was just soaked from her huge little tears. She came over to me, threw the tag on my lap, handed me the blankie, and told me to fix it. I wasn't sure what I was going to do because I don't sew. I don't even have a simple sewing repair kit in my home. No thread, not a needle....nothing...but I knew something had to be done otherwise the situation was going to get really bad.

I had a pair of slacks that I had a small safety pin in so I went to my dresser and dug the lacks out and pinned the tag back to the corner. I apologized to Cassie because that was the best mommy could do but we would take the blankie to Nana's on Monday and Nana could fix it for Cassie when Nana got home from work. The pin worked, at least she stopped cryin, Cassie was very puzzled by the safety pin and she checked that over for a little bit but then got used to it and now she is happy again because her blankie is fixed.

Now I just hope that something doesn't happen to it until Monday.