our toy story

This week we had an adventure. But first, I need to introduce you to Lyevka (li-yev-kah), the Little Miss' best and softest friend. Husband speaks Russian so he has dubbed all of her stuffed animals with Russian names - it means little lion. She calls him Kevka and sleeps with him every night and is starting to want to take him everywhere. So on our thrifting trip this week I let her carry him inside hoping that if she was hugging him it would keep her seated and content in the cart.

Fast forward to a few hours later when we are home and it is time for her nap and I can't find Lyevka anywhere... and then it hits me that the last time I saw him was as we were walking into the thrift store that morning. I cannot begin to tell you how sick I felt at the thought that I had lost him! Our poor little lion was left behind. I didn't say anything to the Little Miss because she will sleep with other stuffed animals, so I laid her down and then commenced panicking. I called the thrift store and they said I would have to come in and search for the lion myself, but I knew I couldn't get there for a few more hours so thoughts of someone buying my little girl's favorite playmate plagued me.


This is the part where you are probably thinking, what's the big deal? And I might have said the same thing until this happened. After I hung up the phone with the thrift store I started sobbing - the kind of sobbing that takes you by surprise because you don't really know why it is affecting you so much. But since I knew that Lyevka was a big part of my little girl's world then he was a big part of mine too. Not to mention I felt horrible and knew it was my fault for forgetting we had brought him.

When Husband got home from work we set out on a rescue mission. We drove out to the thrift store and I basically laid down on the floor to see if she had dropped him - no luck. I checked the top of every rack - no luck. I walked down the toy aisle and didn't see him - I was beginning to get worried. I decided to look down every aisle while Husband and the Little Miss gave the toy aisle a more thorough look. I walked down several aisles when all of a sudden the Little Miss came running around a corner yelling, "Mommy, mommy! Kevka!" with the biggest smile on her face. It was a moment I never want to forget. And then I almost started crying with relief. Turns out he was patiently waiting for us on the bottom shelf of the toy aisle half hidden by other toys.

I have learned my lesson well - Lyevka will never come shopping with us ever again!