Can there be anything more dreadful than that?
I frantically looked through the diaper bag, knowing fully well it's not here! Asked Vicky to search through the overhead compartment while I squeezed myself between the oh-so-spacious seats on the plane.
Kiki's gaffe(Giraffe, his lovey) was missing!
By now we have looked through 5 carry-on bags(no we do not travel light!!) and it's not here!
Kiki is blissfully unaware of his missing love of life, he is watching coco melon and sucking on a lollipop we gave him to help with the pressure in his ears.
But soon this hobnob with coco melon will break and he will ask for his Gaffe, and I have no plan how I will handle the meltdown that will follow.
You see Gaffe is not just any other lovey that kiki has loved and forgotten about in a few days. Gaffe was the first ever toy we gave him.
It was in his hospital bag.
Gaffe goes with him to school, on various trips, to his bed and even to the toilet.
I have had to rescue him from places(if you know what I mean).
He is tattered.
He is breaking apart, threads coming out from all sorts of places.
He doesn't possess a nose anymore and has more stains on it than I would like to admit.
But he is Loved!
Deeply, madly, truly loved.
The love that only a child can give to his lovey, the kind that makes the lovey real and alive.
And I lost that lovey!
This trip had been particularly hard for Kiki. He spiked a fever as soon as we landed in Denver and for the entire trip he was miserable.
And to add to that misery, sister was getting to spend a lot of time with her uncle(my brother), doing the fun stuff, which he had to sit out from.
His Gaffe was the only one that kept him company, aside from the boring parents.
And now he is gone!
Right when I was about to lose hope of ever finding Gaffe, Kiara said she and kiki were playing with it while standing in the line to board the plane. That means he came with us to the gates.
And that means, I left Gaffe in the stroller when I folded the stroller to be checked in at the gate!
Gaffe was definitely not coming back from whatever the hell is checked-at-the-gate.
We lost the cup holder of this stroller on our last plane ride, what are the chances a mere toy, haphazardly thrown between the folds of a stroller is coming back?
I was kicking myself for losing it and figuring out an escape plan.
We have another Giraffe at home, a backup that Kiki had rejected the day it arrived.
I made a mental note to work on it with scissors and dirt as soon as we got home. Maybe if I made it dirty enough Kiki won’t recognize it as the backup.
After 2 long hours of cursing myself and mentally planning all the scenarios where we could make the backup work, we got off the plane. I rushed outside the plane to wait for the arrival of our stroller.
And obviously it would take extra long today… because!!!
I spotted the stroller from a window at the gate and my heart sank!
The person was carrying it upside down and any chances of Gaffe being on it were now reduced to zilch!
With my sinking heart I quickly opened the stroller as soon as it was handed to me.
And to my utmost delight, there it was, hanging by a mere thread from its almost broken tail, Gaffe!
Both me and kiki squealed with joy!
Kiki had no idea why Mom was being so overly dramatic about his Gaffe!
But my oh my was it a sight!
I write this as I watch Kiki through the baby monitor, clutching his Gaffe and sleeping peacefully. Once again there is harmony in the world and I can sleep without feeling guilty.
Have you ever lost something and then found it again? How sweet that reward is, isn’t it?
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