mr. tiger

Renee has a favorite stuffed toy, Mr. Tiger. She locked eyes with that tiger in the gift shop of the Minnesota Zoo, they fell in love at first sight and she very rarely let him out of her hands from that moment on. She'd look for him first thing in the morning, demand to tuck him in next to her in bed at night. She carted him to daycare and to the grocery store and down the slide. Mr. Tiger always went down the slide tucked tightly under her arm.

Then we lost him. 

We went to my parents' house for the weekend and all of our hearts sank when we looked and looked and looked and couldn't find him anywhere. She would wake up in the morning, stick her little lip out and say "Mommy, where is Mr. Tiger? We have to go look for him."

I died a little inside every time she said that.

Ski and I felt like there was a death in the family. We looked for him every where we went in the house. We felt so incredibly guilty for losing our kid's favorite thing. I mean, talk about a parenting FAIL.

I did what any mother would do. I called Nena and asked her to go to the zoo and buy a replacement. She did and she packaged it up and sent it and I was so terrified to open the box and have her call my bluff, to recognize the imposter.

She didn't.

I opened the box and she smiled this super shy, sweet smile and said "Mr. Tiger, where have you BEEN?"

We all felt a lot better. It felt like the stars were back in alignment to see her carrying him around under her arm, whether we knew he was the real deal or not. The nagging wonder about where he went didn't subside though and on our way north for Thanksgiving this weekend when the kids were napping in the car, we wondered together if we'd come across him over the weekend. We wondered what we would tell Renee if she found him somewhere...how we would explain our lies.

Luckily, Renee didn't find him. But Ski did. Ski found him under a bookshelf stuffed up under a radiator. We laughed about the burn marks on his back and how he looked like he had been on an incredible adventure and then we tucked him away in our bags without saying anything to Renee.

When I put him in the cedar chest tonight I smiled to myself...glad that someday, when I give her the most special toy she ever had, that I can give her the original...grill marks and all.

Comments

[The Mommy]

That was a close one! I wised up after the first two...Baby Girl has a monkey from Build-A-Bear (cleverly named "Monkey") and Little One just picked out a bunny for Christmas. (OK. I picked it out, but still.) The key is that these are easily replaceable, if necessary. I figure it's sort of a guarantee that we'll never ACTUALLY lose them.