R.I.P. "mElmo"

I rolled my eyes and sighed in frustration as Ryan sweetly asked from the the jogging stroller, "Bing mElmo?"

That would be my third trip back into the house to retrieve another must-have item for a happy walk with Ryan. First it was the green trash truck, then his car bag and finally his Elmo. I am not usually so willing to grant his every request, but if it means we can have a quiet, peaceful morning walk, then it is worth it. So, against my better judgment, I ran into the house and up to his crib to retrieve his beloved furry red monster.

Over the past few months Ryan has grown quite attached to his Elmo. He sleeps with it every night and every nap. He lets it sit next to him in his car seat. He brushes his teeth with it. Sometimes he even eats in his highchair with it. When we run errands, it is always important that Elmo wears shoes as well (some of Ryan's old shoes that are too small). As I mentioned in a previous post, Ryan will even change Elmo's diaper.

I sort of loved that Ryan loved Elmo so much. He was mine when I was a kid. It was really fun to see him get a second shot at being loved and adored.

Fast forward to the end of our walk... I push the stroller into the its spot in the garage and go to get Ryan out only to discover NO Elmo! "No big deal," I say to myself, "I will just go back and find it." Luckily, Zach's dad was in town so I took Ryan and Roxy into the house, grabbed a bottle of water and went to go retrace our steps.

I was kicking myself for not paying better attention. Nothing usually gets by me. But today I got a phone call during the walk and that must have been enough of a distraction for Elmo to slip out of the stroller. I walked to the point where I last remembered seeing Elmo in Ryan's lap. At each turn I expected to see a red, furry something laying on the sidewalk and each time it wasn't there my heart sank a little more. I turned around and walked back home, defeated.

I was pleasantly surprised when Ryan didn't mention Elmo all morning. Even though I was sad to lose him for my own sentimental reasons, I decided if Ryan didn't care, then neither did I. It was smooth sailing all the way up until naptime when I laid Ryan in his crib and he asked, "Where is mElmo?" I tried to distract him with another stuffed animal. Do you want Zoe? or Grover? but he just wanted Elmo. I decided that it was worth it to go get in the truck and drive our walking route one more time to look for Elmo.

No dice. He was no where to be found. As we walked into the house I explained to Ryan that he must have dropped Elmo on our walk and now he was gone. But as soon as we got in the house Ryan called out in the sweetest little voice, "mElmo! Where are you?!" That broke my heart. I almost started to cry (I am 8 and a half months pregnant, so that is allowed).

Without skipping a beat I grabbed my purse, loaded Ryan into the car and drove to Target to buy a new Elmo. Once again, I am 8 and a half months pregnant, so that is allowed. (Maybe if I wasn't in such a fragile emotional state myself I could have used this as a life lesson, but for at least the next 5 weeks we will have to put life lessons on hold and just do whatever makes Ryan (and me) happy.)

I knew we wouldn't be able to find an Elmo as good as the one we lost. It seems like they all dance or laugh or sing now. The best we could find was a little, cheap looking, scraggly 8-inch Elmo doll. Ryan was excited about it though and hasn't put it down since. And thankfully, he is now asleep with his new Elmo.

"New mElmo"

What frustrates me the most about this whole situation is I think someone must have found our original Elmo on the street and taken him. I will always leave items we find on the street exactly where they are from now on. You never know when someone will come back looking for them.

As far as Karma goes, last week Ryan peed out of his diaper one night and Elmo was damp when I got him out of the crib. I was still researching how to best clean him. (Gross, I know.)

So have fun with your dirty, peed-on Elmo doll, jerkface!