DOLBA is FOUND!

So K has this disgusting blue plush dolly that she has had since she was 3 months old. It started off nice and soft and cute (see picture right, the day she got her). After being dragged around and adored for 5 1/2 years, the thing is simply nasty. Luckily it is washable, and we wash it often. But it is still gross. There is hardly any stuffing anymore (I think it disintegrated), and what there is is clumped in weird places. It has parts that are just dirtied to a dull brown, and it is just disgusting. She looks like an old rag. But K LOVES her.

Funny story - when K was about 3, she left Dolba at daycare over the weekend. By the time we realized on Friday night, it was too late - the doors were locked. Me, being the resourceful mommy I am, had purchased several extra Dolbas when we realized how much K was attached to them. So we handed her one of the extra Dolbas. She took it and went about as if nothing had happened. About 4 days later (after DH had grabbed the original back from daycare and hidden her), K found the old Dolba in DH's closet. She casually picks her up and says - THIS is Dolba. I said, well, what is that you have in your hand? She says, "Soft Dolba". She had known all along that we gave her a decoy and never said anything. "Soft Dolba" was simply too plush to have been the real thing. (Guess I should have run over her with the car a few times like the lady in that commercial with the teddybear.) It was too funny. After that she gave Soft Dolba to her sister, and would only be satisfied with the real thing.

While I was on my girls’ weekend, K lost her. She lost her Sunday morning, and bedtime Sunday night was not fun without Dolba. She doesn't take her to school or anything, but she has to have her at night. We were crazed - we looked all over the house and called everyone and everywhere they had been to try and find her, to no avail. We ripped apart their bedroom - under mattresses, throughout the closet, in their dressers - nothing. Went through the whole house over and over, checked in the laundry and in the trash, through the car. I was actually a bit sad the disgusting thing was gone - knowing how much she was loved.

Dolba was gone for almost a full two weeks! K did pretty well, but was a little more moody than usual. Then, this morning, in a fit of angst, K ran and hid behind one of our curtains - and poof - there was Dolba! What a relief.