A story about a blanket named "Bah-jee"

My son has this blanket, or should I say the blanket.  I got it before he was born as a set for his crib, and he adopted it as his special blanket.  He took it everywhere, and he even named it.  He wanted to take it to school on the first day of Kindergarten.  When he started talking, he called it his "Bah-jee."  We have no idea why, or where the name came from, or what it means, it just is.  He is 8 1/2 now, it is still his favorite and he still calls it that!  Adrian calls it that, we all call it that ;)

Now this blanket is almost 9 years old, and has been dragged everywhere and washed a bazillion times.  Think of your favorite shirt, or an outfit, whatever.  After 8 years, it gets a little tattered and holey.  Bah-jee has gone through a few renovations, and it is about time for another one.  The first one was just a few patches here and there, and mending a few holes.  The second one was a major overhaul.  I dreaded it because I thought for sure Aaron would freak out, and once we did it there would be no going back!


Here is a photo (of a photo, before I had digital!) of Aaron's room before he arrived in 2001.  The blanket with the red border and polka-dots around the edges, that's Bah-jee when he was new.




When Aaron was around 1 year old and Bah-jee was starting to get a little dingy, we looked around for another blanket like it so we could have a spare.  Ha.  This is the blanket we found, similar, but not the same.  And he knew, he knew it wasn't the same!  I actually just took this pic a few minutes ago, so this blanket is practically pristine compared to the real Bah-jee, lol. 





I remember when Aaron was about 1 1/2, he stayed the night at my dad's house for the first time by himself.  The house I grew up in is in Maple Falls, about a 40 minute drive from here, and when my dad brought Aaron home the next day...  He had forgotten Bah-jee.   He said "I'll be right back" and got in the car.  He drove all the way back home, picked up Bah-jee and drove back to our house.  And then drove home again.  He knew the wrath of a particular 1 1/2 year old if we tried to tell him there was no Bah-jee, and none of us were ready for that!

This is Aaron with his Bah-jee when he was about 3 years old (2004), right before Adrian was born, and my friend's daughter Josette.  You can see the patches on Bah-jee that I had sewn on to try and salvage the corners that were starting to go.  I even ordered this Sesame Street fabric off of Ebay!




Here's Kasoma with Aaron and Bah-jee after Adrian joined our family, in 2005.




Here's another from 2005, and Bah-jee is definitely getting dingy and grey. 




We had been preparing Aaron for awhile, letting him know that we had to fix his Bah-jee by getting Bah-jee some "new clothes."  In theory, Aaron was ok with this, but putting it in practice was an entirely different matter...

So we went to the fabric store, and I let him pick out a few different things, and I made a front and back cover for Bah-jee.  He picked out some Dora fabric, Blues Clues, Sesame Street and Spongebob stuff too.  We washed them, and he played with them for probably a month before I did the actual sewing onto Bah-jee.  I was terrified! 

Then the day came and we couldn't wait any longer, and Aaron was actually asking me when we were going to put new clothes onto Bah-jee.  So here I layed it all out on the floor and started pinning the layers together.







And started sewing...




The plan was to sew a front and back onto Bah-jee and make a sandwhich.  Then the yellow Spongebob fabric was going to be the binding around the edges.  I decided at the last minute to not completely sew the binding closed so Aaron would still be able to see bits of Bah-jee around the sides, and that is how he stayed. 



And amazingly, Aaron was ok with the new Bah-jee.  Completely ok, and I was so relieved!  He still took him everywhere and the world still revolved around the sun, and it was OK!

I didn't get to take pics right after I was done, but here are a few from a little later.  We drove to Federal Way to visit some friends and the kids were in the back.  Aaron has Bah-jee on his lap in the first pic.




And here's a few from June 2005 of Aaron taking a nap with Bah-jee.  I used to find him like this all the time, and when I would lift the banket off of his sweaty head he would pull it right back over again.



There is even a piece of it hanging off the edge, where the old blanket is peaking through.


Ok, so here is what Bah-jee looks like today in all his glory... This first pic was about a month ago or so.  Bah-jee is that lump of decaying fabric under their heads, lol!




And this one is from today, and I just took him out of the dryer and he is still warm!












Yep, that's a big giant hole that you can see the carpet through!

Yikes.  And Bah-jee is shedding.  We find pieces of him everywhere, and for while Aaron wouldn't let me throw the pieces away.   So now it is time for yet another overhaul.  We bought some Diego fabric a few months ago and it has been washed and mixed in with the other blankets for a while, so hopefully this remodel will go as smoothly as the other one! 

I will post more pics in a few days when I am finished and let ya know how it goes ;)  Wish me luck!