My wife went into labor with our second child and like 3 AM. I load our 4 year old and her into the car. A little while later Grandpa shows up and takes our son home. My wife gives birth to our daughter. I go back home that evening because Grandpa has to drive an hour back to his house to feed his horses.

Go to put my son to bed and his brown blanket that he has slept with every night is nowhere to be found. I knew he loved this blanket and knew this day would come, so I had a spare hidden in the house.

I march proudly in and hand him this blanket. He looks at it, looks at me, and says, “old brown blanket”. For context he is autistic and had a severe speech delay, so it was kind of shocking to hear him say that. I explain he can have it tomorrow and that this one will do for tonight.

I go to turn on his noise maker which he has slept with every night of his life and it won’t turn on. Turns out our cat picked that day to chew completely through the cord and then continue to munch on it making it unrepairable.

So in one day he got drug out of bed at 3 am, got a new sister, lost his brown blanket, and his noise maker wouldn’t work.

Luckily I had my box of cables and found one that worked with his noise maker. I was so excited when I ran up the stairs with his working noise maker.

He is 15 now, still has his brown blanket and still reminds me about the time I tried to give him “new brown blanket.” But not that his noise maker had a new cord.