Achievement Unlocked

I've been a mom for almost 7 years, and only recently did I unlock a new achievement. I'm not sure every mom unlocks this achievement, but I'm sure a good number do at one point or another.

We washed a good number of stuffies in the washing machine recently. I don't tend to wash them in the machine because it rips up the fur, the stuffing gets displaced, and they don't look or feel the same after they come out of the machine. Yes, they're cleaner, and yes, they smell (so much!) better, but it comes with different costs. 

When my daughter's penguin came out of the wash, I noticed her beak had a piece of the fabric going threadbare, slowly forming a hole. A few weeks passed and then she showed me her poor penguin with a tuft of fluff coming out of the beak. She asked me to sew it up, and I said I would. I forgot for the entire day until we were getting ready for bedtime. I pulled out my sewing box, found the closest yellow thread I owned, asked if it was okay (it was), and sewed up the hole after stuffing the fluff back in.

My sewing skills aren't great. I sew for functionality, not aesthetics. So now, her penguin has a double beak. It's not horrible, and my daughter doesn't mind. So I won't complain. This wasn't the first stuffed animal I sewed for her, but it's the first time I've sewed a precious stuffed animal. 

I was reminded of a stuffed animal my mother sewed for me. I've posted about this teddy bear before. She is now 24 years old! I can hardly believe it sometimes. She's been stitched behind the ear, but the one I remember most is the stitching on her leg. It was the last stuffie my mother stitched for me. 

My mother did a nicer job than I did. In my defense, I didn't have a seam to stitch from. I just had to pull two sides of the torn fabric together and mend it the best I knew how. Teddy's leg looks a lot neater and cleaner. And the stitches have lasted over two decades. 

I don't think about my mother often anymore. I don't think it's anything negative. There's still thoughts to that regard which I need to process and may one day end up on the blog. For now, I was just thinking about a mini rite-of-passage I've experienced. And in some ways, it's like I got to walk in my mother's footsteps for a bit. 

 Here's to the last stuffie she mended and the (almost) first stuffie I've mended. They're friends. 😊