Brunket

I can still remember first meeting Brunket. He came in a dark, wooden basket. The basket was filled with washcloths, onesies, and other baby things. He was placed in a drawer for the better part of a month, but as soon as Jack and Brunket met the attraction was almost instantaneous.
Just at a few weeks old Jack was still sleeping most of the day, couldn’t feed himself, and couldn’t sit up, but he knew which blanket was his favorite.
So Jack’s first best friend is a blue blanket named, Brunket. The thick, light-blue blanket , has shiney blue trim and an airplane stitched in the corner. They go everywhere together. To school, to the park, to bed, through puddles, you get the idea. As you can imagine the two get filthy together. The only difference is the amount they both get cleaned. Jack takes a bath or “bubbles” ,as he calls them, every night. I am lucky if Brunket makes it to the washing machine in the week.
No, I am not lazy or have a thing against laundry. In fact, I feel like I am constantly doing laundry…all….the…..time. It’s just that Jack is pretty attached to Brunket and I have to get crafty in order to distract him long enough to get Brunket away from him. It’s not easy.
Once, we turned Target upside down because Brunket fell out of his hand. I have called grocery stores, crawled under beds, and ransacked my own room in search of a misplaced Brunket before. Let me just put it this way…. Jack gets inconsolable without Brunket in his hands and his thumb in his mouth. He kind of turns purple with rage is the best way I can think to describe it. Blue blanket? Blond hair? Thumb?…. Yes, my son is Linus.
So in order to wash Brunket I have tried to distract him with Cream. I do not make the names I just go with it when they are bestowed. Cream is a blue and white plaid blanket which does not contain a hint of the color cream.
I soon found out that trying to substitute ANY blanket for Brunket is an evil dirty and wrong thing to do according to Jack and the only time he wants to associate with Cream is during nigh nigh…. (another thing I have learned? An entirely new language created by two year olds)
Once he screamed so mercilessly that I actually took Brunket out of the washer and handed it to him soaking wet. Hoping that would teach him a lesson. Silly mommy. He drug the dirty wet blanket around for the better part of an day before I snuck it away at nap time and RE-washed it.
Now, when I wash Brunket it’s thirty minutes of “Where’s Brunket mama?” “In the wash.” “Where’s Brunket mama?” “In the wash” “Mama where’s Brunket mama?” and so on and so forth.
I have had notes sent home from school that the blanket smells. It’s really embarrassing. Jack doesn’t even notice. I actually think he likes that it smells funky because it means no one will touch it.
A boy and his Brunket are not easily parted. I just hope it’s sometime before his first day of college!