Hard to get anything by this kid

Since we have been speaking about Bob, I do have to thank my brother Matt and his friend Azure for locating additional Bobs for me online. I ordered two a couple weeks ago and was very happy when they arrived in the mail. (This will become important later in the story.)

Ever since Sam became so attached to Bob, I have been on the lookout in every baby store and children's department I have been in for a "backup Bob" in case, heaven forbid, the real Bob should ever go missing-in-action. I did find one once, but lost it within a couple weeks somewhere between my parents' house in Minnesota and Joe's parents' house in Cedar Falls, and hadn't been able to find one again. (And Sam has rubbed the tag so much that I couldn't tell what brand it was anymore.) We thankfully have only had one night that we had to put Sam to bed without Bob (which was not particularily pretty) but I found him again that night so Sam was able to wake up with him in his arms.

And then tonight......We arrived home past bedtime from our local playgroup's Lunar New Year celebration (which was AWESOME, but I will post pictures from that later). My hope was that both kids would be asleep when we got here and all we'd have to do was cart them up to bed, but they both somehow defied their exhaustion and were quite wide awake when we pulled into the garage. Sam had asked for Bob on the way home, but since I am trying to not let him leave the house, he was out of luck.

We got Sadie in bed, Sam read his bedtime books, and then we were on our nightly Bob hunt. We knew he had made it out of bed this morning, since Sam tried to share his caramel roll with him at breakfast. The next logical place to look was the basement, since Joe and the kids had spent the morning down there playing trains. No luck. Then it was back to our bedroom in case he had made it back in our bed while Sam was watching TV up there. No luck there either. I then had a slight moment of panic because the kids and I had run errands this morning and I feared Sam may have taken him along without my knowledge, but then I remembered he had his trucks along for that trip so we were most likely safe. We checked all the bathrooms and I sent Sam to look under his bed to no avail.

At that point, all I wanted was to get the kid in bed asleep. We probably could have looked a bit harder, but I was just not up to it. Plus - I knew I now had spare Bobs! Why not put them to some use? I signaled to Joe to get a spare while I put Sam in bed and turned out the lights. (The real Bob has some blue paint from a bathroom-painting mishap and I was afraid if Sam got a close enough look at the replacement Bob we would be busted.)

So - Sam is in bed, lights out, and Joe delivers the replacement Bob. I make a big deal of how Daddy found Bob for him. Sam snuggles up to the new Bob.

"Where's Bob?"

"What? Right there. Daddy just found him." What in the world is wrong!?

"This isn't Bob. This is Dot." (That's Sadie's blanky - which I do already have 2 of - that is apparently much softer than Bob.)

"What are you talking about honey?" I start to panic. I can't decide if he would easily accept the fact that this is actually a new Bob or if he would completely freak out and want the old one back.

"This isn't Bob. It's Dot. It's so soft." Darn - didn't think to drag the spares around with me to rough them up a little bit.

"No, it's not Dot. See?" I have Joe turn the lights on and off quickly so he can see it is a Bob, but not long enough to really examine it. Please...buy it.....please.....

"How'd he get so soft?" Very good question, my boy.

"Ummm....he must have taken a bath while we were gone."

"Oh." Then he holds Bob up to his face and tells him "Bob....I missed you SO much. I wish you would have been with me."

Now I start to feel a bit guilty. What am I going to do in the morning when he gets a good look at this thing and knows it is a replacement? He keeps rubbing Bob and feeling the tag between his fingers. I know he knows something is different, but I just lay there in silence praying he will just fall asleep and not ask me any more questions. He does.

Then I go on a Bob hunt of my own. I have to find the real thing and switch it before morning. I recheck the basement, check the van, and start to look around for a flashlight so I can sneak back into his room and look under his bed myself. In my quest for a flashlight (I am looking for it amidst the toys in the family room since Sadie seems to think that is where it belongs) I stumble upon Bob stuffed into a bucket sitting on the entertainment center. Jackpot!

So now all I have to worry about is how I am going to explain Bob's transformation back to his not-so-soft-anymore condition. Maybe he won't remember....