R.I.P Teddy

A couple of weeks ago Isabella's Mammie (Grandma Mary) went on a trip to Sedona. Isabella had been asking for a special teddy bear to bring to bed with her, so Mary brought back a beautiful Gund teddy bear, which Isabella treasured instantly. She would take Teddy on pretend airplane trips, would take him to bed every night, would even pretend to nurse Teddy with her pretend boobies (see previous post). Isabella has had a number of stuffed animals before, but this one clearly became a special companion more so than any of it's predecessors.

Then, on Monday night, my 6th "Ellie is being bad" sense began to tingle, and I found poor teddy in Ellie's clutches. To be clear - I had reminded Isabella MANY times to be careful with Teddy, to always keep him in one of the toy drawers, to not let Ellie get him. Of course, one slip up is all it takes.




I have to say, I literally almost cried. My poor, sweet Isabella... I knew she would be heart broken. I also knew that it would really hurt Mary's feelings to find that she had bought something special for Isabella, only to have it destroyed. Fortunately Isabella had not yet seen the carnage, so when John tucked her in he convinced her that Teddy was missing but that we would find him soon. She asked for Teddy about 5 times and then went to sleep.

Naturally, I decided to go on a mission to find a replacement. The good news - I knew it was a Gund brand bear. The bad news - Gund makes a LOT of different bears (they are all about teddy bears), each with it's own name, and Ellie had eaten the tag that had the name. So I looked at, literally, over 400 teddy bears online. It was a painstaking process, as colors can look different on different monitors, and (again) Gund makes soooo many bears. Eventually I found what I thought might be a match, selected 1-day shipping (after all, this was an emergency), and crossed my fingers. 36 hrs later - Teddy's twin arrived. Phew - an exact match, even down to the scarf around the neck (which was also eaten off the original Teddy).

When Isabella got home from pre-school, she asked "Where's Teddy" as she has been asking since he was 'lost'. I said "Guess what? I found him under some clothes in our closet!" She lit up, took Teddy in her arms, and (I'm not making this up) sweetly said "I love you Teddy."

I guess that's what love is all about.