Attached

Carissa is one of those kids that has an emotional attachment to specific items.

Sometime in the last 6 months or so, she became extremely attached to an old blanket that I got at a baby shower  FOR LEXI... and that silly, formerly bright pink but now a grayish dingy pink, blanket has been the the cause of many struggles between her and the parental units.

To put it frankly, we used to be able to go out without it... now if it's in site, that isn't an option.

(we lovingly refer to it as "Linus" so we can talk about it without her knowing)

She won't sleep without it. Period.

Because of her attachment to Linus and also a baby doll (who is pushing the limits of recognition as such), they become very dirty.(Linus had 3 different tire track marks on it after a nice little ride in the stroller last week ;-{ )

 But how do you wash them? 

Veeerrry sneakily...

Wanna know how bad it's getting?

Just a couple nights ago, I purposely saved the "pink load" (yes, we have a pink load) for after the girls were asleep so I could snag Linus (who smelled heavily of stinky baby diapers) and throw it and ugly baby in the wash.

As they were finishing in the dryer a couple hours later, I hear hysterical crying from Carissa's bed... 

As Ed cradled her and fought to get her to take a binky, I rush up, Linus in hand and hand it to her. 

Instant Silence.

Out Cold.

And today, we unveiled a cleaner "ugly baby" to this:

We hope to upgrade the baby situation for her birthday next month. 

As for the Linus... I just don't know what to do if anything happened to it. We would never sleep again!