The Legend of Lumpy Bumpy

Adam has had a security pillow for over two years now (I can even tell you the exact date, thanks to this website – it was April 1, 2011). He stole a pillow off of my bed while Dave was deployed and carried it around with him all the time. He named it “Pillow” original, I know. (I really shouldn’t talk though since I had a blue dog stuffed animal when I was little named “Blue Doggy” – we’re a creative bunch here.)

He actually had two pillows for a while, “Pillow” and “More Pillow”. They had the same pillow case, but were different pillows. Adam and my mom could always tell the difference, it took me a little while to figure it out though.

The pillow cases (or Pillow & More Pillow’s Shirts – as my dad named them) were very soft, but old. They couldn’t handle the repeated washing needed from being loved on by a toddler. I sewed them both several times before we decided to try to find a replacement shirt. We bought a set of green pillow cases that Adam loved in the store (green being his favorite “clulor” and all), but they weren’t soft enough out of the package.

Somewhere around this time Adam downsized from Pillow & More Pillow to just Pillow. He stole a soft enough shirt from another pillow in the house. And it wasn’t long after that, while taking a spin in a too hot dryer, Pillow earned the nickname, “Lumpy Bumpy”.

Last week, while driving home from my parents’ house, Adam got sick in the van – all over himself and Lumpy. Thankfully we had a diaper bag well stocked with plastic bags and baby wash and were able to clean up Adam and his carseat. Dave shoved Lumpy in a plastic bag and when we got home we decided it was time for a new pillow and Lumpy went out with the trash.

Adam and I checked every pillow in the house to see if any of them were close enough to be a suitable replacement. I even promised I’d give the new pillow the same too-hot dryer treatment to make it lumpy and bumpy. None of them were close enough and Adam went to bed that night with a not-quite-good-enough stand-in.

When I told my parents this my Dad launched a full scale rescue mission to save Lumpy Bumpy. I was bombarded with phone calls, text messages, and facebook posts. My parents, siblings, and sibling-in-laws all demanded we “Save Lumpy Bumpy”.

At midnight I started to feel really guilty about our decision to give up on Lumpy without a fight. It was this picture, taken the day before by my sister, that prompted me to convince Dave to go outside at 12:30 AM, in the rain, and rescue Lumpy from the curb.

Then I stayed up until 1:30 so I could set LBP up to soak in oxiclean overnight after his initial wash. I did another wash after that, just to remove any oxiclean residue and a fourth and final wash with some Downy Unstopables (they spell it that way, and yes it bugs me to have to type it that way) to make sure he smelled extra fresh.

Adam’s first words to me the next morning (while Lumpy was in the midst of his third wash) were, “I couldn’t sleep last night without Lumpy”. I didn’t tell him that we were trying to save Lumpy – just in case it didn’t work.

He was playing with legos in his room when I got Lumpy and his shirt out of the dryer. The pillow actually smells really, really good. I have to hand it to those Unstopables (even misspelled), they did a great job. I put Lumpy on the couch and called Adam in to the living room. At first he thought it was just a different pillow wearing Lumpy’s shirt. He was very happy when he realized it was the original Pillow/Lumpy.