Losing the Blankie: The Ultimate Betrayal

Alexa got pretty attached to the blanket that I used as a nursing cover. And when I say "pretty attached" what I really mean is very attached. She loved that thing. Loved to eat it, squeeze it in her little fingers, and play with its frayed, raggedy edges...

Notice how I'm talking in the past tense.

We took that beloved blankie with us on a Saturday shopping trip and it vanished. Into thin air. All we know is that we had it when we got out of the car, and we didn't have it when we got back in. Retracing our exact steps, and several calls to two Lost & Founds have sadly yielded no results. Alexa is left blankie-less. And I feel horrible.

Obviously, she's young, she will never remember that old blanket, and will probably be over the whole ordeal in a couple of weeks. But right now, she knows. She knows that the blanket I've been giving her is not the real thing. She knows it's a sorry replacement for the beloved comfort object that she has been using for the last ten months. She'll actually grab it, thinking that it's the one, and then push it away when she remembers that it's not. If I try to cover her with it, she takes it off. If I put it in her hand, she lets go. And sadly, she's left comforting herself by rubbing her own eyelashes, because there are no frayed edges to play with on the Impostor Blanket.

I'm not giving up quite yet. I'll call those Lost & Founds a few more times, but I'm afraid that my worst fear will eventually be confirmed: It's lost forever and there's nothing we can do about it. And that's probably the saddest thing ever to happen in Lex's little life.