The holiday stain

There were things I told myself I would never do as a mom:
1. Never let my baby sleep in the bed with us. Clearly, this would make him want to sleep in our bed until his senior prom, thus damaging him for life.
2. Never take him into the bathroom so that I can pee. Clearly, when he’s in therapy years later this would come up as being one of his earliest most traumatizing memories, thus damaging him for life.
3. Never take him in a stroller to Disneyland. Clearly, he wouldn’t remember the experience, and navigating a stroller through the throng can be tough, thus damaging my toes for life. All these things I said I would NEVER do, I have done them all. We just hit the last one as we took The Kid to Disneyland last week.

My husband and I have been going to Disneyland every Christmas since we started dating. That’s more seasons than American Idol has been on. Honestly, this year I wasn’t sure we should even go. We live about an hour away from The Happiest Place on Earth, but in order to get there we have to brave The Least Happy Place on Earth—the Southern California freeway system. This means a long day for E in the car, and an even longer day in the park again possibly scaring him for life because he might not get his allotted naps in. Not to mention, who knew how he was going to feel about giant mice dressed in red heels? But it’s Christmas, so the promise of giant trees covered in lights and giant cups of hot chocolate won the day.
Once at the park though my worries melted with the fake snow, because we were all having a great time. My toes were coming through the crowds unscathed, and my husband, E, and I were enjoying the lights and the atmosphere.
Then it happened. I spilled hot chocolate on our baby blanket. Not a lot, just a couple drops really. But as I stared at the brown smudges on the white background, I knew it was there for life. Great. Ruined for life. Bother.
And then it hit me.
It was a stain for life.
On the baby blanket we took to Disneyland.
So every time I looked at the blanket I would remember the first time we went as a family to Disneyland for the holidays.
This day was one of those special times that I know I will remember until I need pills to help me remember it again. This was one of those times where my husband and I included E in one of our traditions. We were bringing E into our world, and it felt good. We felt like a family. And I have the stained baby blanket to prove it.
Until, that is, my husband lost it the day I wrote this blog. But, the memory endures where the blanket doesn’t.
And don’t worry.
We will get another blanket.
And I’m sure I will stain that one too.