Sweet Blessings

A couple weeks ago the UPS man brought a box. We like it when that happens. It was a day earlier than the site had claimed, but I happily told Hubby his boots had FINALLY arrived.

He opened the box across the room from me, looked inside, looked at me, and said, "These are NOT my boots." He didn't sound excited.

Thinking they were the wrong style, or wrong size, I begged him to double-check inside the boot box, to be sure. We'd waited over 2 weeks for the darn things to arrive, and exchanging them would be such a hassle! "Are you sure?"

"These are NOT my boots," he repeated, holding up a white box like those you get at department stores to wrap a sweater. It was labeled "Baby."

There were 2 such boxes within, from one of Hubby's cousins. She was probably Big Sister's age when I moved in with her family... 11 years ago, to teach at their little Christian school. She grew up, was Big Sister's babysitter when we still lived in town and I still cleaned houses a couple times a week, and signed up for the Army Reserves or something a couple years back. She met a man, married him in a wonderfully brief ceremony, and moved far, far away. But she took her sewing machine.

The boxes held a wonderful assortment of gender neutral things: blankets, sleepers, a bib, a mitten/hat set, a lovely vintagey card, and a quilt (The box was en route nearly as long as Baby, and we backwoodsy, home-birthing freaks of nature don't get sonograms to determine gender or anything else, you know).

Oh, the quilt.

Doesn't it just look all chocolate-minty? Doesn't that make you want to buy and eat ice cream?


And look at the backing. And the cute vine-style stitch that attached the binding. I just love this thing.


The funny thing is, I figured we had plenty o' quilts around here, what with this being our fourth baby and all. However, I didn't figure the "gap difference" (which is really becoming a noteworthy issue around here). The first 2 girls are 2 yrs, 8 months apart. Then there was a space of 3 years 4 1/2 months. When the second and third babies arrived, their older counterparts were already in 'real' beds. Not so, with a 23 month gap. Many of my quilts are still in use by Organique! Serving as mattress pads as well as quilts, and laundering when necessary, I found myself sadly and surprisingly short on them. And I love wrapping my wee ones in a good-sized quilt, which is stiff enough not to smother them but can provide shade from the lamplight, privacy when nursing, and warmth of course.

She's very nearly lived in it since then, and I finally put it through the wash the other night. Baby might not suffer from separation anxiety yet, but me and the quilt? For sure. :)

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Shah-shee, I'm not linking to you. You're not as paranoid as me, and I could be Found through you. :)