Blankies, Beethoven and Starry Nights

One recent development has been the reappearance of the Dancing Queen's blankie at night time.  Despite the still cold nights, she has taken to sleeping with just a "blankie" over her head and half of her body (they don't cover her like they used to in her smaller days). Now I don't know whether to be worried by this or whether it is just a short term (albeit reoccurring) phase. 

At one point in time, "blankies" were THE essential item.  She was never one for teddies or even really toys with the exception of a whole family of care bears.  The only real thing she showed any strong attachment to was her "blankies".  I think I quickly lost count of the number of large size muslin squares I purchased through the years but we would be talking dozens of them. The wonderful thing about these muslin squares were that they appeared to possess magical powers to block out the rest of the world.  We would never leave home without them and at the first sign of stress, the blankie would come out and she would cover herself from head to toe, almost as if she using them to form an invisible shield to protect herself from the world.

On good days, they would be used in conjunction with the care bear family to whisk them off to magical lands where they would have all sorts of adventures, courtesy of a simple muslin square.  I also lost count of the number of times she, the blankies and the care bears watched the Elmo in Grouchland DVD which again was all about the adventures associated with a "blankie".

The blankies lasted up until the start of her school days when I slowly began to withdraw them from circulation.  However for sentimental reasons, I kept a few stashed away.  They still make good blankets for various kids games and in some instances have been used to make beds for the ever growing beanie kid family (the successors to the care bear family). 

But for some unknown reason, they appear to be making a comeback for comfort purposes. One thing that struck me last night however, was again how far she has come since those early days when the blankies formed that all essential block to a world we could not enter.  Last night's muffled conversation from under the blankie as she was falling asleep was all about Vincent van Gogh, which included the date he died, how he died and which bit of his left ear was missing. Oh and her favourite pictures of his which unsurprisingly include the Starry Night and the Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum (which again has the night sky with the stars).  Either way I was impressed at how much she is learning/absorbing and how much interest she is taking in the world around her.  The fact that it was artwork she was talking about too was equally amazing. This is from a child that can supposedly only deal with concrete facts and absolutes.  But here she is enthralled by the abstract and post impressionism art at that! At this point in time I am assuming she does not realise what a troubled soul he was. Interestingly enough though, the other historical figure for whom she has an abiding fascination is Beethoven (she falls asleep to his music every night), but again I would hate to read too much into that.