Bumper Pad Surgery

Several weeks ago, I wrote about Blake's attachment to his bumper pad. I'm afraid to report that the bumper pad conditioning has only gotten more intense since that time.

To Blake, the sight of the bumper pad equates to sticking his thumb in his mouth and falling asleep.

Also since my prior post about Blake's bumper pad conditioning, I had an incredibly "dumb mom" day. The bumper pad needed washing, and since it didn't constitute a whole load of laundry, I put it in the washing machine with a door rug that needed to be washed as well. The problem was that the door rug was a dark burnt orange and had never been washed before. Seriously, what was I thinking? Of course the rug dyed the bumper pad orange. I destroyed Blake's one and only lovey! (I also accidentally left my cell phone in his room during nap time that day, which wasn't one of my brightest moments as it rang and woke him up...)

Luckily, the entire bumper pad wasn't ruined. There was a section that didn't have any blotches of orange at all. After some consideration and with the help of Troy's mom, the bumper pad went under the knife to salvage the remains. Although I am sad about the destruction of Blake's prized possession, there are some benefits to the mini-version! It will be so much easier to grab and take with us when we travel or go to Grandma's house for the night. I don't think we could have justified bringing the entire bumper pad with us onto an airplane. Also, since Blake will not be in a crib forever, when he moves into a toddler bed he can just bring his new makeshift blanket with him instead of being buried with padding and strings. So, the logical solution was a bumper pad turned into a blanket of sorts.

Hopefully Blake will never realize the difference, and this will help him on the path to normal childhood loveys.