The Unbelievable Happened

I forgot D. I did it, it was my fault. I'm sure every mother at one point forgets their child's blanket, bear, pacifier etc. right? We went to a friend's house, a place Ben had never been, with the intention of putting him to bed there. Easy enough, we've done it a thousand times before in various locations and we've never had a problem, but (and this is a big 'but') we've always had D. We didn't realize D's absence until bedtime, of course, and I sort of panicked. I was ready to drive home and get it, but Mark was confident Ben would be fine, he is, after all, a grade A sleeper. Lorin offered us a makeshift D. Yeah right, I thought, she obviously doesn't know the gravity D holds in Ben's life. I took it anyway, just to be nice. We did everything as normal. Pjs on, cup of milk, sing a song, say a prayer and put him in the pack-n-play. All was calm until his head hit the pillow. This is it, I thought, his entire sense of security stems from that blanket, he won't feel secure, he won't feel safe, he'll think I don't love him anymore.

"I want D"

"D isn't here, he's at home."

"IwantDIwantDIwantD!"

"D isn't here." I take a deep breath. "But here is a new, very cool, special blanket for you to sleep with tonight."

I hold my breath.

"Oooh, way cool."

"Night night Ben. I love you."

"I WUV you mommy."

I exhale.

That was it. Didn't hear another peep out of him. Unbelievable. I think I put more security in that blanket than Ben does. It made me sad, to be honest, to know that my baby doesn't need his blankey anymore. It's another milestone in the growing up process that I was nowhere near prepared for. (This, coming from the one who still has the bear she's had since age 5 in bed with her every night. It's true.) To my relief and comfort, as soon as we got home and Ben got into his bed, he grabbed D, rubbed his face all over it and held him very tightly. The "very cool, special blanket" was long forgotten about, my baby had his blanket and all was well with the world. Well, my world.