Beatrice's Blanket

I've heard of kids having an extreme affection for a blanket, or a stuffed animal, or a certain binkie, or a particular cup, or just something special. I didn't experience that with Franklin so I thought it was something trained. My girlfriend's daughter loves her stuffed animal. I remember going on walks with her and the little girl would drag her stuffed elephant everywhere she went. They had to buy two just in case they ever lost the first.
Again, Franklin never loved anything like that, so I thought it was the parents' doing. Well, after having Beatrice and experiencing how she has fallen in love with her blanket, I no longer can blame it on the parents. She just fell in love with this one, pink, little blanket of hers.
This particular blanket was given to us by the Relief Society in our last ward. I don't know who made it. But they must have made it with an extra dose of love because my daughter just loves it. I admit, it is a very warm and cozy blanket. We've washed it too many times to count in the past year and it still is as fuzzy and soft as the day we got it.
When Beatrice was younger the only way we could get her to fall asleep was to put a blanket over her face. Some kids like to be swaddled tightly with their blankets. Not Beatrice, she just wanted to be smothered. I worried about her all the time, but that's just what she loved. Soon I noticed I couldn't just put any blanket over her, it had to be the pink church quilt.
Now that a few months have gone by, she no longer needs to be smothered to go to sleep, but she still needs her blanket. When I lay her down, she grabs her church blanket and rubs it against her little cheeks and rolls her eyes dreamily. It really cracks me. We have tried putting her to sleep without her church blanket but she doesn't sleep. She just fusses and cries until she gets what she wants. One time the blanket was in the washing machine. I had forgot to put it in the dryer. So she fought sleep for a whole hour. Once the blanket was out of the dryer and into her crib, she was asleep in less than two minutes.
Lately she has been waking up and just snuggling with her blanket. The past week she has been waking up and crying for us to bring her into our bed. Every time I go into her room she is standing at the side of her crib with her church blanket in hand and her arms outstretched. She is our little Linus. If I allowed it, she'd be dragging that blanket everywhere we go.
Not only does she have to have her church blanket to sleep, but she won't sleep anywhere but in her crib or her carseat. Well there were those two times she miraculously fell asleep in Mugga's arms. She never does that for me. She may be picky with her blanket and beds, but she's an amazing baby. She's so fun and adventurous. She's busy, busy, busy. However, she's great at taking naps and going down at certain times. She's our little stinker that we just love so stinkin' much. (Why do people say stinkin'?)