Time to Say Goodbye

It's been almost a month since we said goodbye to the beloved blankie at our house. I desperately wish I had taken a picture of it when I finished making it back in February of 2006. It was a really cute blanket and I was so proud of my first quilt. It was not even close to being a square like it was supposed to be, but I just thought it added character to it and didn't expect my first quilt to be perfect. I had no idea when I made that blanket at just how much it would be loved.

It was probably before Ruby's 3rd birthday that she figured out how to rip the individual strings off, and she would rub them on her bottom lip whenever she was tired. Since she had pretty much ripped it so shreds, I convinced her back in July to turn her blanket into a pillow, and in August we went to the fabric store and she got to pick out whatever fabric she wanted to go with it on the pillow. As you can imagine, the excitement of a 4 year old in a fabric store picking out her own princess material was really high!

Well, as you can see in these pictures, she LOVES her new pillow....or she LOVED her new pillow for the first week after it was made. Then one night, as I was tucking her in bed, the sobbing began. "But mom, I can't rip the strings on the pillow!!" I had wisely sewn the opposite direction all the way across the pillow so it wouldn't be destroyed the first week, but as she cried for her blanket so she could rip the strings, it tore my heart out. Ruby never sucked her thumb or a binkie or anything, she just rubbed the strings from her blanket on her lip, and I had just taken away her soothing mechanism. Sometimes it's hard to be a mom.....BUT.....it WAS time to say goodbye to the blankie, and little does she know I actually have the remainder of the blanket tucked away for her to look at when she is all grown up, which I'm quickly realizing is going to be WAY too soon!! I LOVE that little girl so much!!!