Little pieces of heaven

At 2am last night, I woke up to the sound of a chair being scraped across the floor. From my last post you might remember this is a trend in our family, only 2am is a bit extreme even for our little early birds. I woke up Dave and he ran into the front room only to find Kennedy standing on the chair attempting to unchain the lock to our garage. Dave asked her what she was doing and she said she couldn't find her blankie and was going to look for it in the car. Dave helped her find her blankie in her bed and put her back to bed. I had to smile. My kids just love the things. Just LOVE the things. And I love that they love their little blanks.

Claire started the tradition in our family and her fuzzy green elephant blanket has been with us since day one. She cuddles it, sleeps with it, covers dolls in it and when she really wants a good soothe, sniffs the corners. And yes, each corner smells different. She'll rotate her blank around until she finds just the right one. In fact, when I tell her that she can't take it with her somewhere she'll ask for a quick sniff before she goes. Quirky? I know. Want to know what it smells like to her? I ask all the time. Raisins. Dirt. Playdoh. Basil. Cherrios. Strawberries. Want to know what it smells like to me? I think you can guess, but certainly not basil.

As soon as Kennedy could crawl she used to try and steal Claire's blank. This caused some real drama in the family so I went to find her her own. I chose the exact same style of blankie from Target only in pink with chicks on it. We found out later after some struggles and tears that Kennedy's cousin, Sophia, who is her same age and also a blankie lover, had the exact same blank. Kennedy lost her blank at one point. We tried to find a replacement. I picked one that was almost identical, but it had flowers instead of chicks. She knew immediately that it was an imposter and wasn't satisfied until the real McCoy was located. Kennedy has been calling her blankie "Hammie" over the last few weeks. I don't know where it came from but maybe spread out it looks like a piece of ham?

Baby D loves his little comfort blanks too. I love to see him crawl over to one of them when he is tired and just flop face first on it. At church a few weeks ago he didn't have his blue blank with him and he saw a sister with a light blue fuzzy jacket which he lunged for to do a similar "I'm exhausted" crash. He sleeps with one on top or him and one on either side of his face.

I feel a little out there (and not in a cool vibey way, but more of an odd, eccentric way) writing about my kids blankies, but it is crazy how many times a week I am grateful that they have this little piece of peace with them. This feeling of home and being protected and enveloped in something. I love that we can take these little pieces of heaven with us anywhere and it makes them feel routine, consistency and love.