R.I.P Lovey

Sorry readers! This is not a funny one! 


Last weekend, my son lost his lovey. For those of you who don't know, a lovey is like a cross between a stuffed animal and a security blanket. I don't know who is more devastated: A or me! Right now, I feel like we've lost a member of our family. 

R.I.P. Lovey :(

Lovey practically was a member of our family. He's been around since my son was 6 months old. When we were trying to get him to sleep through the night, I read a book called, The No Cry Sleep Solution. One of the suggestions was to get him attached to an object like a "lovey" that he could sleep with. That way, when he woke up in the middle of the night, he could soothe himself with the lovey instead of crying for us. 


At first, I had to force the lovey (affectionately named: "Lovey") on A. I held it between us when A was nursing, always placed it in his crib with him, and tried to hand it to him fairly often. By the time my son was 1, Lovey was his best friend. He slept with it every night! We tried to keep Lovey in the crib so it wouldn't get lost but got a few replacement lovies just in case. My mistake: I didn't get the exact same lovey as a replacement. Stupidly, I got him a few different animal lovies and he never ended up taking to any of them. 


As my son got older, Lovey still remained a constant in his life. Lovey was there though three birthdays, a big move to another state, many trips and vacations, the transition from a crib to a toddler bed, and the first day of preschool. When I was potty training A, Lovey was there too. He sat with A on the potty sometimes up to 20 minutes! When my son finally started peeing on the potty, Lovey had to be there so A could let him watch. 

A and Lovey on the first day of preschool 

Ready for school!

Lovey became more and more ragged. First, his satin hands come off. Then, he started to fade. It was difficult to wash him because A was so attached. More than once, I tried to sneak Lovey into the washing machine only to have A started asking about him 5 minutes later. When I told him Lovey was getting a bath, even opened the washer and showed him Lovey, A cried and cried. He cried so hard that I had to take the sopping wet lovey out of the washer, ring him out, and let my son have him. 

Lovey went horseback riding 

A treated Lovey like his baby. He "took care" of Lovey. The first time we took him for a pony ride, he insisted that Lovey ride in the saddle too. He tenderly adjusted Lovey until it was sitting in the saddle like a person. At home, he read Lovey books and played with it. I really think Lovey was his best friend!


All of my family and friends knew about Lovey. The few times we misplaced him for a day or two, people would text or Facebook message me to continuously check and see if he was found.


 Last weekend, we took Lovey on a trip to the mall. We went to Build a Bear and then A took him for a ride on the carousel. Somewhere between the parking lot and our house, Lovey was lost.  We didn't notice until bedtime when he was nowhere to be found. Hubby, my parents, and I spent hours turning the house upside down! 


Luckily, A had skipped nap that day so he had no trouble falling asleep without Lovey that night. My mom was so upset. She spent the whole night looking or suggesting places we hadn't looked yet. She just kept saying, "I feel so bad! He's going to be devastated!" 


The next morning, after dropping A at school, we drove back to the mall parking lot and started looking around. We definitely got some weird looks from people as we walked around constantly checking underneath cars. I guess some people thought we were casing the joint!


3 1/2 days later, Lovey is still missing. I've had many calls, texts, and emails about Lovey. Everyone close to us knows what Lovey meant to A!!! I feel like I've looked everywhere. I even called the mall twice to see if anyone turned it in to lost and found. NO LUCK!!!!


Monday, when it started to look hopeless, I went online and ordered a lovey replicate. It should be here by Friday. Our plan is to tell A that we found Lovey but he was so dirty that we had to send him out to be specially cleaned! He's a pretty smart kid so I'm not sure if he'll buy it, but it's worth a shot. I sure hope "replacement lovey" comes soon though. There's only so many times I can tell my son we're still looking before he completely breaks down. 


Seriously though, I think I'm taking this harder than A. I suppose to me, Lovey represents my son's entire life: every important moment from the last 3 years! He's even in several pictures of momentous occasions. My heart is heavy because even I know that replacement lovey is not the same. I still remember the devastation of losing my Pound Puppy when I was a little girl. 


Who knows, maybe he'll turn up?! I keep hoping and praying he does! I'll keep you all updated. In the meantime, hold on to your child's lovey and guard it with your life!




PS- We found Old Lovey about 2 weeks later, in the back of hubby's car. Don't even go there!!!