Maddie never had a security object, but Annie is attached to her blanket – her “wobble.” She imprinted on her blanket when she was six or seven months old…right when she gave up her pacifier, in fact, so I was pretty happy she had something else to soothe her that I wouldn’t eventually have to take away.
When Annie likes you, she’ll hand you Wobble. When she’d hand me Wobble, I would jokingly say, “thank you for MY Wobble.” She’d squeal and snatch the blanket back and say, “NO! ANNIE’S Wobble!” It became a game. Sometimes she’ll run over and throw the blanket at me and say, “Annie’s wobble!” then grab it back and run, encouraging me to chase her. Other times I initiate things by pulling the blanket from her grasp when she isn’t expecting it. It’s our silly little game that belongs to just us.
A few weeks ago when I was visiting Jackie!, I was skyping with Annie (Skype and FaceTime are the greatest inventions ever) and asked, “Hey Annie, where’s MY Wobble?” She ran off camera and came back to show me her blanket. “Annie’s Wobble! Annie’s Wobble!” For the rest of my trip, whenever we chatted I asked her where her Wobble was, and she’d excitedly show it to me.
We actually have a back-up Wobble. Once Annie showed her preference for it, my mom called the company that made it and special-ordered another one. Knowing I was going to be in San Francisco again this past weekend, I got the back-up from my mom and brought it with me. During one of our video chats, I was going to take the My Wobble game to a new level.
I sent Mike this picture message to show her first:
MY WOBBLE!!!
I called a few minutes later and we chatted, and then I said, “Hey Annie, look! MY WOBBLE!” I held up the extra blanket to the camera. I was expecting her to squeal but instead the smile fell from her face. She jumped off of Mike’s lap and ran over to where she’d covered Wobble with a pillow – she’d hidden it after Mike showed her the picture I’d sent in advance. She looked more relieved when she found Wobble right where she’d left it, but when she looked back at the camera I was still there grinning, holding what looked like her Wobble.
“Annie’s…Wobble?”
I could hear Mike’s voice in the background, “Heather…I think you broke her brain.”
I dropped the back-up blanket and tried talking to her without it, but she was having none of it. Mike sent me a picture of her a few minutes later.
Whoops. I think I now have to concede that it is, in fact, Annie’s Wobble.
Jenn says:
Ha ha – OOHHH WOW – Does she ever look mad at YOU!!! No worries though…she’ll get over it ….until she’s about 11/12 but by then, you will be so use to that face – it won’t even faze ya!!! ha ha ha
Becca_Masters says:
I shouldn’t laugh, but, that is the funniest story I’ve heard. Poor Annie!!!
Betsy says:
My son has a “Yani” and we play a similar game with it called, That’s MY Yani” where we snatch the blanket back and forth and run with it.
And I am envious that you have a backup. Yani is homemade and there is no replacing it. Needless to say, it never leaves the house!
maggie says:
Ha! That was hilarious! Thanks for the laugh:)
MissyK says:
Oh my gosh, my oldest son had a “bankie”. It was one of those super soft thermal blankets with the satin on the edges. I kep a stack of those things in the top of the closet because lord forbid bankie go missing or even worse, run out of silkies on the edges because it fell apart. He slept with that thing wrapped around the top of his head forever (why like that…no clue). He is 23 now & I think he may still have the very last decendant of bankie somewhere with him. LOL
Meghan says:
hahahahaha!! I’m 32 and still have my Pink Bear. My middle daughter is the only one with a “lovey.” Because she does everything BIG, she has a trio that she carries with her everywhere. God forbid we ever lose DeeDee, Baby or Bubby.
edenland says:
I’m laughing so much that the bed is shaking.
Lauren says:
Wow, she looks deeply concerned.
When my mom told my son, who was 3, “I’m YOUR mommy’s mommy.” It blew his mind. He just couldn’t figure it out. “No, that’s MY mommy and you’re mom mom.” It’s kind of fun, watching them try to work things out in their young minds.
Rachel says:
Ha ha! I always called my grandma “Mom” (I was the only grandchild for awhile, and that’s what everybody else — all my aunts and uncles — called her!) and my own mom “Mommy”. They never got confused. Even as an adult I called them both “Mom” and they always knew who I was talking to.
When my own mom turned 29 we had a birthday party at my grandparents’ house. I was 6. I asked my mom how old she was, she replied “29” and I burst into tears. “You can’t be 29! Mom’s 29!” (Meaning my grandma, who maintained she was 29 until her death at 78.)
hdj says:
My grandmother is in her 80’s and still claims 29. She totally cracks me up. When I turned 29 I was so excited that we were the same age!
Lisa says:
Hehe. With a daughter who is very attached to her blankie I can totally see how you broke Annie’s brain with that little trick. I’m guessing it was quite a while before she let go of that blanket after that
AmazingGreis says:
Can’t wait to play the “My Wobble” game with Annie next time I come visit.
Love this story, but BOY she is not happy with you!!
Shan says:
Lol..oh I couldn’t help but laugh either!
Aubrey says:
That is pretty funny. I used to do the same thing with my son. He had Blankie. It was the comforter from his crib. He started dragging it around as soon as he could crawl. It only ever got bad in the summer when he insisted on wearing it on his head like a turban. Poor kid would be a sweaty, drippy mess! And of course we had bought the last one so there was no replacing it. He just stopped sleeping with it every night last year. He is 11. I think I was more upset than he was.
Be glad you have a back up and next time remind Mike to hide the original! Haha. Poor Annie looks very confused.
Sonya aka Glam-O-Mommy says:
That pouty face!! LOL…boy you were in trouble! Thanks for the laugh this morning. My daughter has several stuffed animals she loves, but the stalwart companion is Piggy, a once-pink, now graying stuffed pig that my aunt and uncle sent her at four months. If we ever lose him, I fear she would never recover!!
Melli says:
So funny
Andee says:
Ha! She’s mad at her mama in that picture…I love it! So cute
Holly says:
You know, I’ve heard that you should swap out the back-up with the original, so they both get equally worn. My daughter recently imprinted on a beanie baby giraffe of mine that sat on my nightstand for about 6 years before she was born. Luckily they still make it, so I snatched up a back-up one from Amazon. Phew.
Dawn says:
Hoo boy, does she look mad at you! And notice the death grip on My Wobble….
My son’s (2.5) favorite thing in the world is his Bla Bla (a stuffed…cat…thing) that I frequently find lounging across his neck in the morning. But he adores Bla Bla so it was well worth the $45(!) I spent on it. (I blame Amalah for recommending it.) My daughter’s favorite thing for the longest time was a grey and white striped beanie baby cat named ‘Catsby’ (we try really hard with the naming things, can’t you tell?) We even found a back up for her (she’s 5 now) but doesn’t carry it around anymore but for a good 3 years? Catsby went everwhere with her. It got to be so gross that there would have been no way of switching them out for a washing. I think that he’s still lurking in the back of the closet somewhere….
I still sleep with my baby blankets, Stripes (because it is striped, natch) and Pecker (because of the baby chicks on it.) Other childhood favorites were Peter the teddy bear and Richard the daschaund. I still don’t know how kid me came up with such phallic names.
Mommy says:
LOL at the names of your loveys! Pecker!!!!! So funny!!
Finn Reeds says:
Your daughter has THE most expressive eyes and face I’ve ever seen. It sounds weird, but she just seems like such a thinker!! With every picture, you can almost see the wheels turning in that head of hers behind those big brown eyes.
Kate says:
Ha! Oh, my lord, what an awesome story! You blew her poor mind!
Blankets are wonderful things. Says the 28 year old who still sleeps with hers. (It is named Bessie. Shut up, it’s awesome.)
Glenda says:
The look on her face… priceless
Lisa says:
OMG can I say I just laughed out loud!! That was priceless.
Auntie_M says:
Hysterical! I especially like Mike’s comment about you “breaking her brain”!!! Poor thing is going to be trying to figure out how Wobble was in 2 places at once for a very long time!!!
Poor Annie! But I love your original idea! How were you to know you’d break her brain? LOL
I do the same thing with my niece and her Purple. She is now 3 and still loves her Purple dearly, which I love because I bought that blanket for her. I told her that the other day and her eyes got wide and she threw her arms around me and said, “Oh! Thank you Auntie M!!!” My pleasure! Believe me!
Clarice says:
Your little princess is really cute and adorable, her beauty touch my heart because I remember my daughter to her…
Jacquie Holley says:
That was so funny! She looks so pissed and confused.
Kelly says:
Oh my. Wobble is just the cutest.
Mea has her nye-nye, of all the blankets that she has it is the most favorite, and was a hand-me-down from my niece who is a year older.
Tami says:
OH no!! I dont think your suppose to have a wobble either. She looks so sad. I hope she for gives you.. (wink)!!
Jenifer says:
Oh my! I would totally do that – her little face Made me nearly spit my coffee out.
hdj says:
Priceless!
She’s a smart cookie, so I’m thinking the fact she can’t figure out how you did that is what’s making her so mad. Or else she totally gets it and is plotting her revenge.
Beth says:
An awesome post! LOL! She is so funny – looking so ticked off!
Great idea to buy a backup! My daughter’s was a homemade quilt and is worn so threadbare there is barely fabric left but she has kept it as a keepsake. (she is 16 ) When she was about 5, she accused me of shrinking it because it no longer covered her feet.
I still have a little piece of my blankie – 46 yrs later! My mom would take the silky edge and resew it onto a smaller piece of blankey as it got worn and holey. So I have about a 8″ x 12″ keepsake!
Lanie says:
I hope Annie recovers so you can play my wobble again one day. Did you show her the back up wobble when you got home?
Mommy says:
So smart to get a back-up wobble!! Now I must know where she came up with that name!!!
When my oldest was around 5 months, he was attached to his “glowie” (baby glow worm), so I bought like 4. Then he was over it and moved on to a stuffed monkey. I couldn’t find the exact same one but got a back-up that was VERY similar and my 7 month old could totally tell the difference and hated the back up! Then he grew out of the monkey phase too. He also had his “lovey”, a teeny blanket that he always slept with and would drag everywhere. I tried to get a back-up and OF FREAKING COURSE they had stopped making that exact same style/color blanket. Our saving grace was that it came in a “stroller set”- a small “lovey” and a regular size blanket. When he turned 1, we gave him the big blanket and I think we broke his brain too- he kept looking at the little lovey, and then at the big lovey, and back and forth with these huge eyes, like he just couldn’t handle that there were two, and that this new one was SO BIG!! He then tossed the little one aside, and has been in love with the “big lovey” ever since! (Good thing too, because the little lovey was left at the mall one day, never to be seen again :(. Luckily he didn’t mind since he had his new, life-size model to cuddle with). If we ever lose the big lovey, he might never speak to me again!!!
We play the “ohhh, thank you for MY lovey” game too, and he thinks it is a little funny, but he makes sure to whisper, “It’s really not yours, Mama.” every single time. You know, just in case I really was planning on keeping it!
I love how little ones are so attached to their blankies. Cutest thing ever!!
Julie says:
My son had his Blankie as well, but this one had a gender. That’s right, Blankie was a girl, and he would refer to her as “she” regularly, and correct you if you didn’t.
Thankfully he’ll never read this blog post so I can say this, but he slept with “her” until he was 18. Granted, by that time she was wadded up under his head like a pillow at night, but she was there nonetheless.
Today, three years later, she is folded up and on the shelf in the top of his closet. She’s 21 years old now too, but about 81 in Blankie years. Faded, torn, can’t even see her original design. But I am pretty sure he gets some comfort in knowing she’s there.
I know I do. When he first left for college, I would occasionally go in and smell her, and feel like my baby was still at home….