Meet Churchill.
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| The frog, not the baby - that's Brad. |
Here's his brother, Winston.
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| Hippo = Winston, Baby= Asher |
The pictures above represent approximately 0.5% of my photo collection of Schmidtlets with Winston and Churchill. The babies are Very Attached To Them.
Naptime isn't naptime without Churchill tucked under the chin. And tummy time doesn't work well unless Winston is within reach.
W & C are exposed to much loving and drooling, so last night unbeknownst to me, St.Matt decided to throw them in with the baby laundry.
This morning I went on the Great Churchill Hunt – called St.Matt – and eventually located both of them In The Dryer.
Winston is fine.
Churchill is crispy.
He must've gotten stuck to the vent, because he is definitely dryer-fried.
I took this pretty calmly – much calmer than overdue-for-his-nap Brad. I figured I could order a replacement and have it in a few days. Naptime until then might be a little rough, but it was a short term problem.
I even thought I'd be SMART and order a Back-up Winston and Back-up Churchill.
BUT.
Churchill has been discontinued.
I can order as many Winstons as I want.
BUT.
Churchill – crunchy, need-a-replacement Churchill – is discontinued.
And I can't even find another one on Ebay. I thought you could find ANYTHING on Ebay.
A much-chagrined St.Matt called Pottery Barn Kids customer service. I bet he was calm and steady. The e-mail I sent them included lots of !!!!'s and HELP! and the line: Please save my naptime.
BUT.
Even as I have this Mommy Crisis, I also have perspective.
It's a toy. He's 4 months old. This is more upsetting for ME than it is for HIM.
I know this moment is heightened by having sent my finished manuscript to Agent Extrordinaire, Joe Monti, this morning. Because everything seems more panicked after pressing *send*.
I know that even if Crispy-Churchill can't be salvaged. Even if Pottery Barn Kids can't hunt down a leftover Green Frog Thumbie, and even if one never appears on Ebay, Brad will be fine and I haven't failed as a mother.
Even if it feels like it every time his lip quivers.
You'll let me know if you come across a Churchill, right?
***UPDATE*** We have a Replacement Churchill being shipped from Ohio and a Backup Replacement Churchill coming from Florida. Thank you so much, Awesome Pottery Barn Customer Service! *exhales*
Almost equally exciting - my cousin-in-law told me about the wash-in-a-pillowcase secret (thanks, Melissa!) now St.Matt can continue laundry-duties without fear!
