Our Favorite-Stuffed-Animal Crisis
After a perfect evening celebrating our wedding anniversary last Saturday night, my husband and I drove out to my parents’ home on Sunday morning, 35 minutes away, to pick up our Little Man.
My son loves his ‘pajama parties’ at my folks and always brings a few essentials besides clothes and pjs: his favorite blanket, his favorite pillow and most importantly, his favorite stuffed animal: Winnie-the-Pooh.
He has been sleeping with this Poohbear since he can remember. Well, not actually… we have replaced ‘this Pooh’ many times due to vomit, bits of food, mucus (ugh, I hate even typing that word), saliva. I tried to wash him one time in the washing machine, that went okay, but then I put him in the dryer and he came out smelling burnt: don’t try this at home.
But his current Pooh, which he thinks he’s been sleeping with since the day he was born, is always around and frankly, has reached the status of a good friend.
That said, we had a wonderful Sunday, played outside and were busy with games til bedtime. Ahh, a great weekend.
We were putting our Little Man to bed when he asked,
“Where’s Pooh?”
“I’ll find Pooh,” and I went downstairs, scanned the living room, the playroom, the kitchen, his bathroom. ‘He must be downstairs in the basement’ I thought, and I quickly trotted downstairs to the basement playroom, which is ALWAYS where things are when I can’t find them.
I looked around… No Pooh.
My throat started to feel tight. No Pooh.
“Pooh must be in the car.” I yelled up. He had to be. He had to be. Please be in the car. Please be in the car.
My husband ran out to the car, came back in and our eyes met, “Pooh’s not there; we left him out at your parents.”
My heart was up in my throat by this time, all the while I’m thinking,
“We couldn’t have left the most important stuff animal in the world at my parents. That would be such a rookie mistake, laughable even.”
But no one was in a laughing mood. We ran upstairs to my son’s hopeful eyes. Even he was thinking, “We couldn’t have left Pooh at Nanny and Pop’s.”
I called my parents. They hadn’t seen Pooh. Then my mom’s voice broke,
“Oh no, we left him in my car; that’s why we haven’t seen him and it didn’t occur to any of us that he’d been left.”
In the next 5 minutes there was crying, not tantrum crying or ‘I’m just making a point and I’ll get over this crying’; it was ‘I am so incredibly sad’ crying. My son has never been without his Pooh to sleep. A phone call later and my husband was in the car, my dad was rushing, with Pooh in hand, in his car; they would meet halfway.
So I rocked my 4-year-old son and sang to him as he calmed down, knowing that Pooh was on his way. I hadn’t stopped mentally banging my head against the wall with thoughts of ,”Idiot! Rookie mistake!” until we got the call about 20 minutes later that the exchange had been made. My husband and dad pulled their cars along side each other, Pooh was handed out one car window to the other outstretched arm.
Little Man said he was tired and climbed into bed. He insisted I stay with him until Pooh came home, so I got a pillow, laid on the floor beside his bed and we talked.
He stopped talking and looked over at me to make sure I was there and his eyes started to get heavy, fluttered a little and he fell asleep. I just looked at him. It’s beautiful to watch your son fall asleep (ah, in more ways than one). Man, he made it look easy, even after so much turmoil.
I heard the front door open and went to the top of the stairs. “Shhhhh,” my husband handed me Pooh without a word. I tiptoed back into my son’s room, leaned down, nudged him a little and said, “Here’s Pooh, he’s home.” Little Man opened his eyes just long enough to smile and exclaim in a whisper, “Pooh!” He snuggled up to the worn, aged, silly-old-bear, and went immediately back to sleep.
I wish all problems were that easy to solve…
My husband and I looked at each other downstairs: 45 minutes of crisis mode, tears, mentally bashing our lack of awareness- UGH. I still can’t believe WE ALL FORGOT POOH!
But: watching my Little Man fall asleep, laughing while comparing ourselves to Meg and Hamilton Swan in ‘Best In Show’ (“Where is Busy Bee? We have to find Busy Bee!”)-
to our son and all little ones having the ability to fall into a restful sleep almost instantly… priceless.
An abbreviated version of this can be read over at DC Metro Moms Blog.
CHECK ME OUT AT ‘BECOMING A MOTHER’
Check me out at ‘Becoming A Mother’.
It’s a great site for new moms and expectant moms.
I share a post on sleep deprivation and not being able to understand a children’s cartoon…
But hasn’t that happened to all of us? Please, tell me I’m not the only one who was fuzzy around the birth of my baby!
And CLICK HERE to read my guest blog!
SEWER PROBLEMS… THE VIEW FROM MY FRONT DOOR
Our neighbors across the street have a problem with their sewer.
This is the view from my front door.
Oh wait, it’s changing.
Yes, that’s a full size bulldozer. Luckily, I’ve already made friends with the guy who is in charge of this ‘excavation project’…
The good news, he says, is that they won’t start today. They are just going to leave this bulldozer there until Monday. I’m not quite sure how that is good news… but whatever.
The bad news is that the sewer pipe they have to repair and/or replace is right in front of our driveway and house.
More bad news- he thinks he may have to replace our sewer stuff because our houses are on the same line.
BUT – hey, let’s look for that silver lining=
He says this is good in the long run, because we won’t have sewer problems ever… not that we’re having any now…
And they will get this done in 3 or 4 days… he thinks.
I’m thinking positive thoughts. I’m thinking positive thoughts. I’m thinking positive thoughts.
Happy Friday! I hope your view is better!
MY SON IS NOT A STALKER OR SNOB
Next week I have our moms meeting for my son’s preschool class.
I have already prepared a very short speech, so parents are not frightened or offended…
It goes like this:
“Ladies, so nice to see you all that I know and so nice to be able to meet the rest of you. You may know my son already, he’s probably introduced himself in the morning when you’ve dropped off your child. If my Little Man approaches you, recites your address to you, then tells you the best way, in his mind, to get to your house… don’t be alarmed. He is not stalking you or your child. He just loves maps and has been studying the class list and everyone’s addresses.”
I’ll then have to go on and say:
“Ladies, just one more thing. If my son asks you what kind of car you drive, or has already memorized what kind of car you drive, and comments on it, he is not being a snob. He has no idea how much a car costs… any car. He simply LOVES CARS… ALL CARS.”
I purposely never discuss prices of cars with him. I don’t want him to even unconsciously start thinking 1 car is better than another because it is more expensive. Or vice versa.
I think the speech will do the job. Of course, the girls moms will not really understand what I am talking about, but the boys moms will all just nod their heads.
TAKING CARE OF SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN
I don’t usually touch on news stories here but people have to know about this. A fellow mom and Silicon Valley Moms Blogger shared this story.
A young man with Down Syndrome, 16 years old, was put in a closet for ‘outbursts’ during class. Teachers and school officials then called the police on him when he refused to GO BACK INTO THE CLOSET after using the restroom.
Every child must get the chance to learn… and I understand that all children are at different levels of intelligence and that maybe this child was disruptive to the ‘class learning experience’…
But who are we kidding here? You don’t put a Down Syndrome young man in a utility closet!
You don’t put ANY child in a closet!
The education system in CA and here on the other coast and everywhere in-between needs to figure this out. It’s not that hard. This story makes my heart ache.
Finally… as the banner at the top of this page reads, this blog concentrates on the ‘good stuff';
in keeping with that:
Let us not forget that every child on the planet deserves the right to learn.
This should not happen anywhere, but especially here- this is America.
FLOWERS, FLOWERS, AWARDS, FLOWERS
CONGRATULATIONS TO MY DAD! He is a retired biochemist and now, avid rose and Dahlia grower. His Dahlias are now winning awards!
The Dahlia above won Best In Show at the National Capital Dahlia Society Show. Those are my son’s hands around the bloom, as you can make out, the flower is just about as tall as him.
My dad also (drumroll, please) went up this past weekend to Philadelphia to the American Dahlia Society National Show.
He won ‘King of the Show’ for Best Big Dahlia (in the country) with the lavender Dahlia on the left of this picture. (That is not the actual bloom that won, but it is very similiar/from the same plant.)
Happy Monday! Don’t forget to stop and smell the flowers 
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Check me out at DC Metro Moms, talking about consignment shopping in the DC area!
MY WEDDING DAY
11 years ago, on this weekend, my husband and I got married.
It was the best weeding and reception I’ve ever been to, of course. It doesn’t seem like that much time has passed on one hand, on the other, it seems like so long ago.
It was a great day. Remembering that day, the subject of ‘me’ always comes up in my head: my dress, my shoes, my hair, my makeup, me, me, me.
Then life changed to us: where are ‘we’ going on vacation, where are ‘we’ going to live, what do ‘we’ want to do for fun tonight.
Then a little guy came into our lives in December of 2003… He changed my focus.
What can I do for ‘him’, how can I help ‘him’ grow, how can I make ‘his’ life wonderful.
Who am I kidding, it’s nice to get a manicure every-once-in-a-while… But life grows bigger when you concentrate on other people besides yourself,
and having the responsibility of nurturing a child and all that it entails, is a privilege.
Gotta go: it’s ‘Red Day’ at preschool today, and my son couldn’t be more excited!
IS THAT DRIED-UP CHEESE?
Continuing on my self–disclosure kick…
The other evening I flipped open the chair you see above. It’s a great chair, it’s been through a lot of vomit as I related in another post.
If my Little Man needs a snack or juice in the living room, he sits in this chair. It’s also nice on a Saturday morning to sit around, drink coffee, eat muffins, read the paper, talk about what we are doing that day… all sitting around the coffee table on big comfy chairs.
Yesterday evening I was opening said chair to relax in it; it opens into a futon and it’s exactly my size when opened up… Yes, I know it’s for children, but I’m five-feet tall.
I opened it up and just before I laid down on it, I saw what I thought was a yellow lego.
“Oh, I’ll just pick that up,” I thought. I leaned over to pick it up, pulled on it and it stuck to the chair…
Legos don’t stick to fabric…
Looking closer, I now realized that I was holding a dried-up piece of American cheese; the last time I gave my son cheese and crackers in his chair was a week ago…
I am quickly losing my reputation for being neat, tidy and almost an anal-like cleaner…
HELP!
PS- GIANT FOOD FREE GROCERIES GIVEAWAY
Just another note about Giant Food; they’re giving away a year of free groceries every week for the next several weeks. Go HERE to enter…
FREE GROCERIES FOR A YEAR… what could be better?! Actually, when you read the fine print it’s $5,200.00 of free groceries, so $100 of free groceries for a year- but who’s counting… still a great deal!
GOOD LUCK!
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