When I was little, my mom used cloth diapers on us. I apparently had one or two set aside as comfort objects...not blankets really, but still something soft to hold onto and to have with me. I developed a habit of sucking my thumb on one hand and rubbing the edges of the cloth diaper with the fingertips of my other hand. The diaper affectionately came to be called my "hangie-on-to." Eventually, I wore the corners of them completely bare. The outside seam was still there, but that's it. When my mom decided it was finally time for me to stop sucking my thumb, she figured it would be as easy as taking away my hangie-on-to, since I never sucked my thumb without it. Well, I was not to be so easily outsmarted. I took to fingering the hem of my shirt or my nightgown instead. I eventually did stop sucking my thumb (I'm not entirely sure how that actually came to pass), but Mom tucked away one or two of my beloved hangie-on-to's for posterity's sake. I still have it/them in a box in the attic.
Gra'ma's package contained a blanket and two hangie-on-to's. They're not just plain old cloth diapers like I had, but can still be a comfort object of some kind for little Julie. I'm certainly not going to train her to suck her thumb with them, but if she decides to, well, I guess we know what they say about the apple and the tree...
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