When my son Griffin was about 18 months old, I brought home a changing pad I had found at a yard sale. We didn’t use changing tables, preferring instead to change the babies on the floor (one less thing in the house, right?) and I thought the pad might come in handy. A portable changing surface I could take anywhere.
But then Griffin saw the jellybeans on the blanket and from then on, using the logic of a toddler “what’s yours is mine”, he took it and the pad became his security blanket. At night we would tuck it under his chin and wrap the excess underneath his feet – a way to keep him safe until daybreak.
He always had the jellybean blanket with him and many was the time we had to go back to the daycare for the forgotten blanket. Griffin could not sleep unless his buddy; the Jellybean blanket was alongside him in the night.
As he got older, the blanket no longer fit over his body but still it lived in his bed. At first covering the lower half of his body and then on top of his pillow where to this day it remains. (yes even at RIT)
Griffin’s jellybean blanket. It is as much a part of the history of our family as it is of Griffin’s childhood. We all know about it, we all respect it.
It is a mighty force of calming.
At a local craft fair this weekend, I was walking by a booth: Doodleheadz by Caro where they were selling decorations and quilts from various fabrics. It wasn’t something that I was particularly interested in until I saw one starburst decoration.
It was lovely, bright yellows, and blue and … chickens!
As you all know, I’m pretty much a sucker for anything chicken related.
I called Addy over to show her. “Look at the chickens,” I said.
She looked and then got all excited, “And mom, look at the jellybeans!”
I looked closer, yup she was right, what I had thought were dots, were indeed jellybeans. Someone, somewhere had decided that putting chickens and jellybeans together was a good combination.
“It’s like it was made just for our family.” Addy said.
We purchased the decoration and brought it home where it now sits on our dining room table.
Quite frankly, I’m surprised that we don’t see this combination more often, because when you come down to it, who wouldn’t want something that sports jellybeans and chickens?
If you ask us, we think it’s the most perfect and logical combination anyone, anywhere could ever come up with. And Addy’s right, it’s like this decoration had been made just for our little flock.
