An elephant blanket of her own

May 17

Robyn gave dad a blanket with elephants on it for his birthday.  It's made out of the uber-soft, cozy fabric.  Kate fell in love with it.  She would snuggle up in it to watch cartoons on Grandpa's chair.  Well, then Grandpa got sick and eventually had to be hospitalized and had his gall bladder removed (in the process they found some other problems with his lungs).  During this process Grandpa started using the blanket more (he would get terrible chills).  One day Grandpa was napping when Kate went down for her nap.  She wanted to sleep with the elephant blanket so she went looking for it and found it draped over her sleeping Grandpa.  Grandma stopped Kate as she started to pull the blanket off of him.  She was sorely disappointed (expressed in her stopping out of the room with her arms thrust downward, her head lowered, and her lip protruding).  Grandma laughed about it when she told Grandpa later.  He felt bad and said she could use the blanket.  Then they thought about getting one of her own.  They couldn't decide if they should just give it to her now or wait for her birthday.  Given the fact that her birthday is in mid-summer, they opted for an out of the blue "you're-a-good-girl-gift."  Mom laid it on her bed and when it was nap time she told Kate that there was a surprise for her.  It was pretty cute how excited she was to have her own snuggly elephant blanket.  It's been a favorite ever since.