Crisis in the 2yr Old World

Kayla never became attached to any special doll, blanket, stuffed animal, or any other type of 'security blanket' or 'lovey' type possession. So we never had to deal with something like that going missing.

Lucas hadn't either. Oh he slept with a handful of blankets and rotated among a few stuffed animals, but nothing was consistent.

Until recently. He started sleeping with a small, stuffed whale. It was the perfect size for his small hands. His grip is probably imprinted just below the whale's tale where he would carry it. It had that well-worn hand indentation on it. It fit perfectly under his chin, or on his cheek.

If he woke up in the middle of the night or the early morning hours, he would come downstairs carrying his blue blanket (yes, the blue blanket you made for him LJ!) and his whale, and climb into our bed. Every night he made sure his whale was with him in bed.

And now... it's missing. It's been missing since Saturday and is no where to be found. It has to be in the house somewhere, but we haven't been able to find it. He occasionally takes it in the van, but when we get to our destination it always stays in his car seat; so we didn't leave it out in public anywhere.

He's never hidden it or put it any obscure place. It's always been clearly visible in the living room or upstairs. And now its just gone.

I've searched every room today. It's not a common stuffed whale that I can go to the store and buy another one. I don't know what store even carries it, or where to get one like it. We got it a few months ago at the Special Needs Informational Fair that was held on base. There were a number of organizations there and each one had freebies on their tables. We usually grab 2 of everything so the kids each have their own of whatever it is ... but for some reason only one of these whales ended up in our bag. And Lucas took an instant liking to it.

Thankfully he hasn't had a meltdown about it. He hasn't cried himself to sleep every night because he doesn't have it anymore. But he has asked for it the last 3 nights. He's asked for it in this sad, pitiful voice that just breaks my heart.

The first night I told him I would go downstairs to look for it and he fell asleep; waiting on me to come back I guess. The 2nd night I told him I didn't know where it was. Then I said 'maybe it went back to the ocean.' and that was the first time he was about to cry some real tears. "No it didn't go in the ocean!" Me, "oh ok, it's not in the ocean, but I'm not sure where it is." He said, "its in the ocean." (I guess it was ok to be in the ocean as long as he suggested it.)

Last night Joe put him to bed and when he asked for his whale Joe said, "I think Mommy said it went in the ocean." And Lucas said, "Yeah. But I want it to come back now. I don't want it to get very wet."

My poor little man. He just wants his whale.