My favorite shirt.

I don't quite have the photo thing down yet, so the photos are in the post below.

Any of you who have spent any amount of time with me since 1998 (with the exception of my mission) probably saw me wear my favorite shirt.  It is red, white and blue tie-dye and used to say U.S.A. Washington D.C. on it.  Anyone who has spent any amount of time with BC knows that this is his "special cloth."

I bought the shirt in October 1997 while on a trip to the East Coast.  I loved that shirt.  I wore it all the time.  The first time I know I had my picture taken wearing it was when I got my driver's license renewed in 1998.

I didn't take it on my mission, but I did when I went back to Russia with ILP in early 2000.

I was wearing it when DH and I went to visit his parents in August 2000 (long before we were engaged).  See Photo.

I was wearing it when we got new driver's licenses in MI shortly after we were married.

I was wearing it when we lived in Virginia in 2003, but by then all the lettering had worn off.  It was also starting to get some holes and come apart.  See Photo.

It seems I stopped wearing it in public sometime after that, but I still wore it for pajamas.  This is how it came to be in BC's possession.

One day when he was about 3 months old I was wearing it while I nursed him.  He didn't want me to put him down to sleep afterwards so he grabbed the shirt.  I simply slipped the shirt off and he was left holding it.  We used it every time he went to sleep after that.  Before I turned it over to him fully I did remove the collar (it was halfway out anyway) so that he wouldn't strangle himself.

It was officially his blankie well before his first birthday.

Now, when I take him to visit old friends they comment upon seeing it "I recognize that!"

In January this year I took a good look at the shirt.  It had a lot of small to medium sized holes and one or larger tears in it, but the sleeves were still very much sleeves  It wasn't until a month ago it really started to come apart.  See photo. I can see that the shirt will soon fully succumb to entropy, but until then it is a very important "cloth."  Which is why I am writing about it today.

See, I know BC brought it downstairs this morning after he got dressed.  That was the last I saw of it until nap time.  I usually go hunt it down for him while he gets in bed for his nap, and so did not think it strange that it was not where I last remembered seeing it.   I went to look for it.  I looked, and looked, and looked, and looked.  I went back each time after a thorough search of the house and told him, " I could not find it. Please, go to sleep."   I looked in the fridge, the pantry, all the kitchen cupboards, under every piece of furniture, behind every open (and closed) door in the house, in the car, in the basement, in the shower, in the dryer, and in every conceivable (and inconceivable) location.  I was beginning to think he put it in the safe!

BC still wasn't sleeping, so I let him out of his room after a couple of hours.  I asked him where it was and he couldn't tell me.  I called a friend of mine to see if she could dream up any other unusual locations that I hadn't thought of (and to commiserate, I hate feeling alone in my helpless mommy moments).

While I am talking to her (for an hour), I start looking in even more far-fetched locations (heat vents, garbage cans, etc.)  I casually flip over a pillow on the floor (BC hates pillows on the couch and puts them on the floor everyday).  Wahoo!!!  What was lost has been found!  It must have stuck to the pillow when I moved them earlier. 

I can now foresee the day that cloth is no more.  DH wishes it was today.  I know we will have a few long nights after it disintegrates completely.  I also know I will suck up a hundred more tiny tails in the vacuum before that day finally arrives.  I know I will miss it when it is  gone as much as BC will.  After all, it is my favorite shirt.