Emergency surgery for Mitchell’s “jankie”

Mitchell came into our bedroom Thursday night very distraught. He was holding his “jankie” (blankie for those that don’t speak Mitchell) in one hand and one of the ribbons from his blankie in his other hand.

He said, “Mommy, can you fix this?” in the saddest voice I’ve ever heard. I looked at it and told him, “There are 3 other ribbons like that one that you can use.” He replied with, “But I don’t want 3; I want 4.” I told him I couldn’t fix it for him because I don’t sew. So he said we needed to get a Band-Aid® for the blankie.

So we head off to the kitchen and I got a race car Band-Aid® for his blankie. He seemed OK with re-attaching the lost “limb” with a Band-Aid®. Thank goodness!

On Friday I was running errands and one of my stops was going to be the dry cleaners where I hoped that they could re-attach the ribbon that had fallen off. But first, I had lunch with my friend, Kent, and I told her about the tragedy of the ribbon coming loose from his blankie. She is a much better sewer than I am and she said she would look at it. She looked at it and said she could fix it for him. I let her take it (after signing a waiver saying she would return it the next day at Mitchell’s birthday party). I was very nervous about letting the blankie out of my sight! But she assured me that she would not forget it and it would be good as new.

I was very nervous when we put Mitchell to bed on Friday night. But thank goodness he did not ask for his blankie. But he did ask for it on Saturday morning when he woke up. I told him that I gave it to someone who would fix it for him and that they would bring it to his birthday party.

I forgot about it until we were opening his birthday gifts and sure enough his blankie was in one of the gift bags! He was so excited to get it back and have 4 ribbons all intact. He immediately wrapped his finger in the recently re-attached ribbon and was as happy as he could be.

Every time he pulls it out now, he asks me, “Who fixed it for me?” And I remind him that Grayson’s mommy fixed it for him. And of course we all remember Grayson as the one who blew out the candles on Mitchell’s cake last year.