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| I've lost it...again! |
I'm knackered. I've spent about an hour trying to find Ethan's beloved soft toy "Coco". I know he's in the house somewhere. Ethan was playing with it on the couch before going to bed, and of course, when bed time came, he was gone. It's probably in the black hole along with the Gruffalo book we lost last week, and half of my husband's socks.
Of course my 3 years old couldn't tell me where he put it. "He's in the river", he said excitedly. I checked the bath, the shower, the toilets, the sink, but no sign of Coco. I looked pretty much everywhere. To be fair, it's not the first time it's happening. Once I found him in a drawer. Another time it was on the highest shelf in the living room. I think the best one was when Ethan put him in the bin. I couldn't believe it and I had only looked in there because I was desperate...! Now it's the first place I look in. But this time, nothing. I even checked the washing machine, the dishwasher, all the cupboards... I am puzzled. Where the hell is that rabbit??
Honestly, I should know better and actually, we're already on Coco number 2. We lost him while on holidays in France during summer. I have no idea how it happened, but I think Fabrice took Ethan on the bike and Coco fell on the road. I didn't notice he took him in the first place so that's kind of my fault. Anyway, I looked it up on the internet and in two clicks I bought his replacement. To avoid big tears, my mum went to the supermarket and bought a different one, a cow. But you know kids, Ethan wasn't fooled one bit, and kept telling my mum it wasn't Coco. So he called it "Coco mamie" (Grand-mother in French). The "real" Coco was delivered two days later and everything went back to normal. Except he was already attached to "Coco mamie" by then, and we had to bring it back to Ireland as well. So now, he has two Cocos... Double trouble, twice the chances of losing them!
At least I found it easily online. It wasn't the same story when we lost Didi, Ciaran's plush toy. Fabrice had the brilliant idea of letting him take it to IKEA... The land of super efficient storage spaces. It was during the "I-open-every-cupboard-and-put-something-in-it" phase Ciaran was going through. Needless to say Didi probably found a new home in one of the children's bedroom cupboard.
My online quest for a new Didi lasted for a whole day. I spent hours on the web looking for that damn toy. It was originally a present from a cousin of mine who, of course, didn't remember where she bought it. It was coming from France so I searched every French online shop possible with the description " blue and brown rabbit". I was getting nowhere when I decided to use Google images instead and finally found the treasure! It was on a "Lost soft toys" website, and there was only one left. That's when I discovered it was not a rabbit, but a dog. Don't laugh, it definitely looks like a rabbit shaped dog.
I don't know if all parents out there feel like me, but all this losing and searching for their favourite soft toy is exhausting, and stressfull. Not only you have to rip the house apart but you also have to deal with the tears and the lengthy explanations on the whereabouts of their beloved teddy... And if you have to buy another one, you have to pray that they will not make the difference between the old and new one.
If only there was some sort of tracking tag we could put on those things and every time you lose them you could "call" the toy and it would make a sound.. I've looked that up online, it doesn't seem to exist, so I might be on to something here!! I just need to take a crash course in electronics and computing. The thing is, I'm sure a lot of parents would be interested!
Anyway, for the time being, I have to keep searching. I'm off to the freezer, I haven't looked there yet.
photo credit:www.doudous-perdus.fr
