Tragedy at the Mall!

Amelia and I decided to make the trip to my sister Laurie's for the 4th. The plan was to walk in the children's parade at home and then drive to my sister's right after. We woke up on the 4th to rain and 60 degrees; the parade was "cancelled" for us. We took our time and left for my sister's in the afternoon as her girls had to work until 8 anyway. There is an outlet mall between here and there that makes a nice place to stop...and we were going to visit friends who just brought their second daughter home from China in April, so we HAD to go to Children's Place to get a gift:)

When Amelia first came home from China she liked towels, she had 4 or 5 small towels that she would snuggle and suck on at nap and bedtime. I was VERY careful that she did not get attached to just one. Then her teeth started to come in and she started to pull the strings out of the towels with her teeth, so we switched to thermal receiving blankets. It took awhile, but eventually she accepted these as a substitute. Again I was VERY careful not to let her get attached to just 1...in fact we had 13 of them; some at home and some at daycare so that she could have a clean one daily.

I'm not sure when it happened...but ALL OF A SUDDEN Amelia became attached to a particular blanket. This wasn't even one of her blankets; yes it was a thermal blanket, but it was one Grandma bought at a garage sale for her to use for her dolls. It was very worn out and had another child's initials on it...this was BLANKIE. Blankie goes EVERYWHERE! I generally do not allow Blankie to go into stores, for fear of her getting lost, but Saturday I wanted to shop and didn't feel like fighting Amelia in the rain to get her to leave Blankie in the car; so along she came.

We were at the mall a couple hours and only went to a few stores; it was getting later than I wanted to be there, so we ran into Subway to get some dinner. Amelia dropped "Blankie" her best friend on the floor and I picked her up and said, "You better be careful or you are going to lose her." Blankie is a girl! Little did I know what was about to happen. After Subway we ran into The Gap as I had a black shirt on - and of course I could not wear a black shirt on the 4th. The store was PACKED and the fitting rooms were full, so I just tried my shirts on over my tank..picked one, paid and left. We went from Gap to a 50 cent ride outside of Children's Place that I promised Amelia she could ride if she was good. She road the plane - then we climbed in the car and took off.

A half hour down the road Amelia asked, "Where's Blankie?" I turned around and stared in horror! I didn't have her - she didn't have her. I got off the Interstate at the next exit - pulled over to the side of the road and dug!! I looked through every bag - through the stroller - tore the car apart - Blankie was gone! I got back in the car and looked at Amelia. "Where did you have her last?" "Did you have her on the airplane?" "Did you have her when we left the store where mommy bought her blue shirt?" She didn't know.

I knew we had Blankie when we left Subway, so she had to be at The Gap, in the parking lot, or in the Airplane by Children's Place. I started pulling out receipts, I called Gap - they didn't have her, Children's Place, hadn't seen her, Mall Office, no one had turned her in at lost and found. There was no point in turning around as the mall would be closed by the time we got back...no one had Blankie...I was panicked. Amelia scary calm...it was as if she didn't care. I knew I was in for a LONG night.

We got to my sister's and she completely understood the problem...her girls are all over 17 and STILL have their blankies...they even offered them to Amelia. They didn't fit the bill. Laurie dug through the doll blankets, the blankets she saved from when they were babies - NONE of them worked. Amelia finally fell asleep, but it didn't last long. She cried and cried HARD- the grief was intense and it killed me to see her in such pain.

Sunday after church where I instructed Amelia to pray that God take good care of Blankie - and a visit with our friends - we headed to the mall. While Amelia played with her Uncle Phil (more on that later!) I went to EVERY store in the mall looking for a substitute. You see Blankie has to be thermal - but SOFT...and that isn't easy to find. Remember I have 12 at home that are not acceptable, even though I continue to wash 5 of them EVERY time I do towels - just in case something like this ever happened. I finally found a package of 2 that I thought would work. I bought them, hunted Amelia down, she was hesitant to accept them, but finally took the blankets and immediately did a suck test. THEY PASSED! She only woke up once last night and the new Blankies seemed to do the job - although she continued to ask about Blankie and whether she would ever see her again. I was honest...I said I didn't think so.

I continued to call the mall office multiple times a day, even though I left my name and number, because they are supposed to get ALL the lost items for the entire mall -and on the way home tonight we stopped to check in person...NO LUCK! I said, lets just go check at The Gap to make sure...we walked in and I went up to the first person I saw. I asked if they'd found any childrens blankets. She said, "Is it white?" I said, "Well, it used to be pink - now it's more grey." She went behind the counter, picked up Blankie with one finger (just like me) and said, "Is this it?" Amelia GRABBED Blankie and immediately started sucking on her(after it had sat on the floor for 2 days!) It was ALL I could do not to start crying and hugging this woman! It was WAY better than winning the lotto!!!

Needless to say - we have a new rule, Blankie is now housebound. She will no longer be allowed to leave the house and the new blankies I found yesterday will be going to school. We are NEVER EVER EVER going to lose Amelia's BEST friend - who she plays with, dances with and talks to - AGAIN - EVER!!! (Pardon the blurry photo...my camera also saw a bit of tragedy when it got stepped on at the fireworks...Amelia was just trying to jump on my lap...OOPS!)