My 5 year old has two blankies he sleeps with every night, his mimirs– the colorful Taggies brand that have several tags all along the edge. One has a smiling monkey holding a baby bird on a yellow background, and colorful spots all along the edge. The other has a playful puppy, and is Blue with some reds, and yellows.

I’m not sure where the term came from, probably Abuela, because I never had a blankie. I would just drink my chocolate milk, from a bottle, and twirl my hair around my finger ‘til I fell asleep. But he and one of my daughters, both endearingly call their blankies Mimir.

He came to me with one of them the other night. Pushing it towards my face he said, “Mom, you have to fix the ‘nother mimir’.”

It’s not the first time I have to sew one of the mimirs. My daughter’s has a cute little Giraffe that’s needed stuffing and sewing many times over the past 8 years. So, I promised to patch up “nother mimir”, as he called it, later, and in the meantime, he had the blue one to comfort him at night.

The next morning, my wake up call was, “Mom did you fix Mimir?”

“No, I was sleeping, silly!” I said grabbing his little face and kissing his cheeks. “I will get to it first thing after breakfast.” Glancing at my apple watch, it was more of a brunch actually.

Breakfast, brunch, lunch came and went, as each of my kids placed their orders.

“Frosted Flakes and a cup of milk, please.”

“I want a sandwich, only cream-cheese, pan and Jamon.”

“Mom, can I have waffles? No syrup. Thanks Mom.”

“Mom, what’s for lunch?”

A sink full of dishes; load of laundry or two; Zoom class; wiping down and putting away groceries; several episodes of Spongebob Squarepants; dinner and a family walk; a couple trips to the pantry for Oreos; and the day had gotten away from me.

11:00pm (yes, my kids were still awake) : “Mom, you didn’t fix “nother mimir”, again!”

“Oh my gosh. I’m so sorry, papi. I forgot today, but I promise to do it tomorrow.”

The next day was almost an exact clone of the day before, as the days have been during this pandemic, with just slight variations on the breakfast, lunch and dinner menus, and varying moods on the activities.

“Mom, may you please make me eggs with toast, and a cup of milk.”

“Mom, where’s my cream-cheese pan? I’m hungry.”

“Can I ride my bike on our walk?”

“Mom, do we really have to go on a walk today?”

Later that night, I spotted the mimir hanging out of the drawer of my nightstand. My husband and I were getting ready to watch “Call of the Wild” in the living room, so I grabbed it and went rummaging through the hall closet for my sewing kit.

Yellow thread would match the previous stitches I had made.

I threaded the needle, tucked the taggie into the seam of the blankie, and began to sew it up. It didn’t take long, and after the movie I collected my water, phone, “nother mimir”, and book, and went to our room.

Our son was on our bed watching what else but Spongebob, he was twirling the Blue mimir around his arm as he lay back on a mound of pillows.

“David, look! I fixed “nother Mimir”.

He grabbed it, and found the taggie I had sewn back in. He brought it up to his face, and rubbed it gently on the tip of his nose, closing his eyes as he did so.

Suddenly, I remembered his zoom class from the day before.

It had been a “Pajama day”, so they had their pjs on, their favorite bedtime buddy, and book.

When David’s turn came to show and tell, he introduced his classmates to his blankies.

“This is ‘nother Mimir’, and this is the ‘Baby Mimir’.”

He went on to explain how he sleeps with them each night. Then he showed the class one of his favorite books, “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See?”

Each of his classmates took turns showing their pals and favorite tales.

He lovingly caressed “nother Mimir”; I had assumed he meant to say “other” or “another”, just like he still pronounces a “w” instead of “l”, as in “weft” and “wuv”.

My eyes teared up as I realized he was saying “Mother”.

I pulled him close then, hugged him tightly and covered his face with kisses, as he comfortingly smelled his “Mother Mimir”.