Cat Sleep Sack The Third
Interrupting my recent rampage of jewelry making projects, about a week ago I discovered with horror that Joaquin’s cow sleep sack has become too tight for his 19–month–old growing legs.
As I free Kiki out of it and the crib, I tell him about the problem:
Sozo doesn’t make any bigger sizes of their adorable sleep sacks. In fact, they don’t even make the size Joaquin possesses anymore. I know it because, when it was time to replace the smaller Koi sack Joaquin had before the cow, I couldn’t find the supposedly existing XL designs anywhere. So I contacted the company directly and they confirmed that the larger sizes had been discontinued. They sold me, however, the last XL sleep sack they had in stock for boys: our cow.
—But baby, you’re a lucky bollito because your mommy loves sewing, and given the lack of readily available super cute wearable blankets in the market, I will make one for you
… [pause]… But what should we do? What should your next cow be?…
Joaquin looks at me, then looks away for a second (clearly thinking of his answer), then gets back to me with a meooow
.
—A cat, huh?… Joaquin wants a cat sack!
As the week goes by I start becoming a little lazy about the whole idea of designing and making a sleep sack as cute as the ones we’ve all gotten used to. Perhaps it’s not a good idea to perpetuate this sleep sack thing. I mean, I think the three other children in Joaquin’s playgroup are all on blankets by now. Joaquin’s cousin, Elise, was surely on blankets last year, when she was Joaquin’s age. Aren’t toddlers his age supposed to be sleeping with blankets like normal people? After all, if Sozo discontinued the larger sizes, maybe it was because they couldn’t sell them; because 19–month–old kids don’t sleep in sleep sacks.
But Joaquin still rolls out of blankets in bed. Will he freeze in his crib without his wearable blanket?
All this is going through my head one morning in bed, while Joey gets ready for work. He reaches to kiss me goodbye, and I announce: I’ll make him a quilt. A large quilt that we can tuck under the crib mattress. That baby needs to start getting used to blankets!
. Joey laughs at the stern decision of frau mommy and leaves. I get out of bed and head to Joaquin’s room while I begin designing his new quilt in my head.
I open the door and cheerfully give him my daily Hola Pupulini!
Joaquin greets me back with a smile and immediately says cow!
and starts pointing at the cow’s spots falling on his tummy and legs, which I know he loves.
So the decision is made for me. It can’t be any clearer. That same day I open my dusty copy of Illustrator and design a cat sleep sack, The CatSack. It will be in jersey and it will be 100% cotton.
This weekend, thanks to Joey’s help taking care of Joaquin, I was able to work through the 22 hours it took me to make my design an actual product from scratch, and Joaquin wore it to bed this same night.
I was nervous that he’d protest the change and ask for his familiar cow, but the cat paw prints caught his attention immediately. Thankfully the cat was accepted and I can’t wait to see my sweet gatito in it in the morning light.
Oh well… One of these days Joaquin will stop rolling in his crib, and he’ll surely sleep under blankets by the time he’s 18. For now he’s still an adorable baby—a very tall one, granted—and his need for a sleep sack, who cares?
