Clinging to The Cloth

Most of you family members know that pretty much from birth my boys have held, sucked and slept with a rotating variety of burp cloths. All my kids were off pacifiers by four months of age, but they each found something different to stick in their mouths at bedtime. The boys had their cloths, and Allison sucks her thumb.

Clay got broke of his dependency on his cloth a couple months after he turned five, after our trip to Germany (I wanted him to have that cloth to cling to on the long airplane flight). Afterwards, we celebrated. A burning of the cloth ceremony in which one was symbolically lit up in our fireplace, while the others were retired to the garage so Bruce could use them for washing cars. Then there was a party. With cake, of course.

It's always been our intention to break Spencer and Allison's habits when they turned five as well, but the best laid plans... you know.

Last month our twins had their dental check-ups and the hygienist said something I, again, had every intention of following through on. She told Spencer that he should give his cloths to Santa, so he could give them to some baby that needs them, because Spencer is big now. I meant to wrap those things up and put them next to Santa's milk and cookies, but I forgot.

Yesterday, I had a reminder phone call from Santa, aka Bruce, telling me to pack those cloths up and send them to the North Pole (probably the Moodys address. And I'll have to mail them on a day that Clay is in school so he won't read the address and blab!) Evidently, some other mommy really needs them for her little boy. I talked this over with Spencer, and his response was, "No, next year. We'll do it next year." Stinker!

Well, I have mounds of laundry to do, so Spencer's stash of clean cloths was out at bed time last night. Instead of fighting this out over the weekend while Bruce isn't working, we just told Spencer, "You don't need it. Go to bed." He is a night owl, so pretty much every half hour until around 11:30 p.m. he was asking one of us for his cloth. By that time, he was completely worn out. They've all been staying up way later than normal over Christmas break. The last time Spencer came downstairs, he was bawling. He wanted his cloth, and someone to sleep with him. I pulled him on my lap and within 15 minutes he was snoozing. Of course when I took him up to bed, he jostled awake, but after having mommy lie next to him for another five minutes, he was a goner!

I thought he'd for sure wake up, like Clay did when he went through this, and cry a few times in the night. Nope! First thing this morning he barrels into our bedroom and yells, "Mom, mom! I did it! I slept without my cloth. Can I have my party now?"

Daddy says one week with no cloth and then PARTY!

Spencer asked about sending his cloths to Santa, and I said that I'd have to wash them first. I said, "We're really proud of you. I knew you were ready! You must be proud of yourself, huh?" And he said, "Yes, but I want to send the cloths to Santa because then I'll have joy in my heart for sharing." I'd like to bottle some of that sweetness up and save it for a rainy, "tough teenager" day.

We were going to break Allison at the same time, but I think Spencer deserves his recognition separate from hers. Plus, I think the thumb will be harder. She keeps telling me, "It's not like you can cut it off." Ahh, but as a former thumb sucker myself, I have plenty of tricks up my sleeve. She has no idea how devious I'll be to avoid the cost of braces!

Uh, oh! Round two. Spencer is begging for his cloth.

Pray for us all!