She isn't into "girly" things like princesses and glitter, although she cannot resist the urge to get her nails painted whenever and wherever she sees nail polish.
I guess you could say that she is a tomboy, even if she is a little young for a label as such. Her daddy could not be happier! She plays baseball, dinosaurs and rough houses with him on a daily basis. It doesn't matter what gender she is, Hubby will make sure she knows how to change a tire and bake with equal success (although I think the cooking lessons will be left to me.). This pas tHalloween, she asked to be a White Tiger... good luck finding a tiger costume that is made for anyone 18 months and up! It's impossible!
This brings me to my point, when LT was just over two years old, we took her to the Zoo. And of course, like most children, she loved it! The best part of her day was when she met her new best fiends, a tiger named Muppet and a white tiger named Baby. Not real tigers, of course. But small plastic ones from the gift shop. She could have had anything, but she wanted these two $3 tigers and they instantly became her best friends! She took them everywhere with us and they even slept on the stand right next to her bed so that when she woke up in the morning, there would be no time spent searching for her favorite toys.
One, day, she wanted to share her tiger friends with our dog, Moose. Moose isn't a little dog. He is a 75 pound chocolate lab that can and will eat just about everything that even remotely resembles food. LT's tiger friends were no exception!
She came running up the stairs, crying because Muppet had an ouchie. Hubby did his best to melt the plastic back into looking somewhat like a tiger, but Muppet had permanent burns marks from his ordeal, and would never be the same.
A few weeks later, the same things happened again. Moose got ahold of the tigers. LT didn't share this time, and she was totally heartbroken over the loss of her friends and favorite toys.
Since we got these on a special trip to the zoo, all the googling and eBay searches in the world would not produce a tiger that looked like either of her friends. What is a mom to do? Luckily, a family member had free tickets to the Zoo's sister park, The Safari Park.
The day of our trip, we were having a great time and stopped for some lunch before we headed down to the train and took a bit of a rest. LT and I went into the little gift shop right next to the cafe and who else did we find, beside our good friends Muppet and Baby!
Literally, the same tigers that we got at the Zoo six months ago, were sitting at the entrance to this gift shop, and for the same $3 each. LT didn't even know the difference. She picked them up and started playing with them, just like the day she got them. Didn't even miss a beat. In fact, I had to grab different ones from the display for the cashier to scan because LT didn't want to give them up, even for a few seconds. The best part is that she thought they were the same tigers that Moose ate, and that they just got lost. They even have the same names, Muppet and Baby are a huge part of our family!
No lying done by Mommy. But I would have, I would have lied to her about those tigers as long as I had to, if it made her happy.
Have you ever tried to replace a child's favorite toy or blankie after it got lost, or eaten? How did it work for you?
1 comments:
OMG I am so glad you found them! We lost a tortoise at the Wild Animal Park once. We luckily found him at the SD Zoo. They do walk very slowly you know. Please kiss Muppet and Baby for me, I fondly remember our lunch together!!
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