Monkey's Vacation

As I've mentioned before on this blog, Monkey has become Tess's dearest companion. He goes with us everywhere. He sleeps with Tess. He has a special seat at the new table. (Tess told me this week that it's Monkey's chair.)

So you can imagine our dismay when Monkey fell off the stroller on Sunday during a walk and was lost to us forever. Tess was sleeping, and we dreaded the next time she would ask for him. We did an Internet search and fortunately Amazon could come to our rescue. We'd ordered a new monkey before she even woke up.

Sure enough, she looked for him later that afternoon. I told her that Monkey had taken a trip to visit Nana and Baba in Florida, and he would be gone for a few days, but he was coming back. She accepted this explanation, along with Doggie who became her stand-in-friend for the last few days. She asked for Monkey several times every day and whenever we'd go into her in the middle of the night, but whenever we'd tell her the story about Monkey coming back, she accepted Doggie and didn't cry. (That was a relief.)

The only time she cried was when she saw a boy with another monkey in music class on Wednesday. It was too much. She wanted Monkey.

So when I told her this evening that Dadda had picked up Monkey at the airport and was bringing him home, she got so excited. She kept saying "ah ah ee" and "Nana, Baba" on the way home. Eric had put Monkey in his seat, and she ran to him as soon as she got out of the stroller, squealing with delight. She hugged and kissed him and did a happy dance of jumping around in circles for a bit. Then she had Monkey jump up and down with enthusiasm.

Now Monkey stays close by, reunited at last. He's so much softer and cleaner now, but Tess hasn't noticed. ;)