Let’s Talk Babies

A few months ago I told you all about Maya’s love affair with her blankie.  I talked about how it has to go pretty much every where with us.  I talked about how she needs to snuggle it to calm down if she is upset or angry.  I thought I understood the magnitude of the love Maya has for her blankie.  I thought I understood just how truly important it is to her.  I mean, I get that even having it be in the wash for a few hours hurts her little heart, so I figured I understood.  Then the blankie disappeared and I saw what it looks like when a 2 year old’s heart breaks, it isn’t pretty.  I witnessed and took part in The Great Blankie Hunt of 2010 and lived to tell about it.

Given Maya’s love  obsession with her blankie it often comes with us on our daily travels, particularly on days when Maya is tried or cranky.  Friday was just such a day.  I had a bunch of errands to run and we had to be out of the house during naptime while a real estate agent showed our house to a potential buyer.  So, given that Maya was already a little cranky and given that she would get more cranky as the lack of sleep caught up with her I opted to bring her blankie with us on our travels that day.

All was right with world.  We ran our errands, killed some time driving around and then headed home.  Unfortunately, the real estate agent who was showing our house was late for her appointment and arrived just as we were getting home.  Since we couldn’t go into our house we crashed at my neighbor’s house for a little bit.  Maya played with my neighbor’s kitties, had a glass of lemonade and sat quietly on the couch with her blankie.  Still, all was right with the world.

After about half an hour the coast was clear and it was safe for us to go home.  I gathered up our stuff and we headed home.  At the time I didn’t know it, but, as the door closed behind us Maya’s blankie sat rolled up in a ball on my neighbor’s couch.  The table was set for what was about to became the epic meltdown of Maya’s little life.

When we got home everything was fine.  I didn’t even realize that the blankie was no where to be found.  I went about the business of putting my purchases away.  Maya was playing happily in her bedroom.  Then the trouble started.

Maya hurt herself while climbing into her crib and started crying and asking for her blankie.  I began a ravaged search of our house for the blankie.  I retraced my steps, I looked under and over every possible spot in our house.  I LOOKED EVERY WHERE, TWICE.  The blankie was nowhere to be found.  I thought back on the last place I remembered seeing it and realized we must have forgotten it at my neighbor’s.  No big deal, I thought, I’ll just run over and get it.  No luck, I knocked and knocked on her door but there was no answer.

I looked back at the devastated look on Maya’s face and knew I was in for a load of trouble.  The corners of her mouth turned down and two giant tears rolled down her little cheeks.  She let out a heartbreaking plea for her blankie.  I tried, with all my might, to explain that we would get her blankie back, we would just have to wait a little while.  Nothing registered.  Maya’s mind was on one thing, and one thing only, her blankie.  Her beloved blankie was gone, the one thing that would have worked in this situation to calm her down and it was gone.

I tried giving her, her substitute blankie to calm her down while I frantically called my neighbor’s cell phone trying to reach her, but it didn’t work.  For the next two hours Maya cried; nonstop, hysterical, big huge alligator tears crying.  For the next two hours I knocked on my neighbor’s door, emailed her, called her cellphone, over and over again.  I became desperate.  I just wanted that blankie back, almost as much as Maya did.

Finally, 2 hours after the debacle began there was a knock on the door.  I opened the door to find my neighbor holding Maya’s blankie, nicely folded, in her arms.  Maya reached for it and with tears still staining her cheeks hugged that thing with all of her might.

I learned two things that day.  1) Maya loves her blankie even more than I had imagined (boy am I kicking myself for not buying a second one when I had the chance) and 2) She is apparently just like me!!!  My mom was full of stories just like this one of me when I was a little girl, with my own extremely loved blankie that I just couldn’t part with.  Like mother like daughter I guess

Luckily, there was a happy ending to this story.  Maya has her beloved blankie back and again all is right with the world.

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