My mom pushed me around in a wheelchair the whole time (plus usually at least one boy on my lap) because the hot sun does a number on my legs and there was no way I could walk around. I'm sure my mom was sore for a few days after that, since she probably weighed like half of what I, the wheelchair, and whatever children were on my lap weighed combined. But the upshot was that we got to go toward the front of most lines. Not right to the front, but they have a "wheelchair line" that was generally shorter, sometimes a lot shorter than the regular lines.
The only trauma of the day was when Mosey lost his Sunshine bear. I had kept it in my backpack the whole day, for fear of his losing it. So late that night, after the Carousel, our last ride of the day, he asked for it, and I gave it to him. Then we walked to a couple of gift shops to find this "string thing" toy that the boys wanted for their souvenir (it's cool), and somewhere along the way Sunshine bear was dropped.
We retraced our footsteps, went back to the gift shops, scoured the ground with 5 sets of eyes searching, but couldn't find it. Mosey was absolutely inconsolable. He finally calmed down when I assured him the Disney workers probably already picked it up and were taking it to the lost and found. So all the way out of the park I was praying that was true, and Mosey kept asking me every couple of minutes if Sunshine bear was at the lost and found. Sadly, he was not. I filled out a lost item report, and then we had to head out to the car.
Mosey was ok about it for a few minutes, but once we reached the parking garage and the reality of going home without Sunshine bear hit him full force, Mosey was very, very, very, very sad. It just about tore my heart out. He kept crying, "Mom, my sunshine bear, my sunshine bear! I need my sunshine bear!"
Three years old is the peak of childhood object attachment, so to him, that Sunshine bear was extremely important. And seriously, he had that thing with him EVERYWHERE. And I think he could not understand how I couldn't find it. After all, I am mom, finder of all lost objects. When he had misplaced Sunshine bear in the past, he would ask me, "Mom, where is my sunshine bear?" And I'd say, "I don't know honey, you'd better go look for him." And then he'd pause a second and say, "But mom, where is my sunshine bear?" It is not possible, in his mind, for me not to know where something is. So I'm sure he was also confused as to why I wasn't producing Sunshine bear as I always had in the past!
He finally, finally fell asleep on the way home, and the first thing I did when I got home was to log on to my computer and search ebay for another Sunshine bear, in the likely event his wasn't found. My some grace of God, I did find another sunshine bear, exactly the same as the one he'd lost. I found *one* among thousands of other Sunshine bear paraphernelia. I ordered it immediately and it only cost $6.04. You know, with all the frustrations that changing technology can cause, that moment of finding a replacement sunshine bear made it all worth it.
The next morning, sure enough, the FIRST thing Mosey asks about is Sunshine bear. So I totally lied and told him that Disneyland had found Sunshine Bear, and they took a picture of him to make sure he was the right one, and now they're mailing him to our house in Texas so we don't have to drive all the way back there. I showed him the ebay picture, and you should have seen the smile spread across his face. Think that lie was ok? I do, and I'll stand by my dishonesty!
So Friday morning we were literally waiting for the mail (Mosey was somewhat disappointed that he wasn't there on Thursday when we got home), and there was a package with Sunshine bear!! The only glitch was that this was a brand-new Sunshine bear, and Mosey's was... a well-loved Sunshine Bear. So I lied again and told Mosey that he probably got really dirty on the streets in Disneyland, and I'm sure the Disney workers just threw him in the washing machine for us. He bought that one too (as did the twins, amazingly), and no one's the wiser.
I'm still sad that somewhere out there is Mosey's old Sunshine bear. Makes me think of the poor, abandoned Velveteen Rabbit. Think there will be a fairy to turn him into a *real* bear? But at least my boy his happy again, and is once again inseparable from his Sunshine bear.
The last known picture of Mosey's original Sunshine Bear.
A picture of happier times, just minutes before the disappearance.
2 comments:
That is so funny. We did the same thing with Lindsey one year when she was about that age when we traveled to Disneyworld. We ended up buying a little stuffed animal from Ronjon's while in Florida, and she lost it on the plane. We called Ronjon's when we got home and had them ship another pink whatever-it-was to us. I'll have to go up in her closet and see if I can remember what it was exactly.
Yes, I think that was an "okay" fib.
I especially like that they "took a picture" and mailed it. Very smart. :) I can imagine the drama!
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