Answer: Ebay!
So, we had a tragedy a few weeks ago. Caleb's lovey, a pastel colored rattling elephant, went missing. Caleb has had Elephant since he was born, and he's loved him and slept with him since he was about one and a half or two years old; you could say Elephant was Caleb's Velveteen Rabbit. So it was quite a problem to find him missing--we have looked everywhere we can think of, but it would seem that Elephant is gone.
Caleb was distraught, to say the least. We offered to let him pick out a new stuffed animal at the store, but he just cried harder when we suggested that. So Grandma Beth offered to buy him a new elephant (she purchased the original) if we could find an identical one. For anyone who knew Elephant, he was a bit...loved--a little raggy and very worn out, with a hole in one arm. So we knew the new Elephant wasn't going to pass for Old Elephant. Instead of surprising Caleb, we asked him if he'd be okay with a brand new Elephant, and he said yes.
So then the search began. I thought Elephant was a relatively well-known brand name for stuffed animals, so I searched the Ty website, and Gund's website, and then Ganz's website. None of them had an Elephant that matched Caleb's Elephant (lots of OTHER elephants though). FINALLY, we tried Ebay, not knowing what exactly to search for except...Stuffed Jingle Elephant (which also brought up all sorts of Christmas elephants).
One on the list sorta looked like Elephant, but not exactly. However, it was a Russ brand stuffed animal, and that rang a bell. So then we searched some more for Russ elephants with rattles and found an Elephant just like Caleb's old one . Pink, Purple, and Yellow pastel-colored plush elephant that rattles, with a tag that says Razz. Hallelujah! (Of course, as a parent, I never paid attention to what the tag said except that it reads "surface washable only". Right, like I follow that recommendation).
Caleb says the new Elephant's name is also Elephant so that she and the old Elephant can be "girlfriends" (I think he means friends that are girls). We're a little concerned that Caleb still thinks old Elephant is coming back, but for now the sorrow seems to be over.
How sad. Yet his face in those pictures is so precious. I'm glad you were able to find a replacement and I hope it satisfies his heart.
ReplyDeleteKaya's favorite toy was her Elmo my mum bought, which goes in the bath. It was a disconitued item when she bought it from some surplus website. It has been lost so many times. Once in sears, she put it in one of the fridge freezers. We had staff members out helping us look thruogh all the fridge freeers and drawers etc in the store! Once she left it at the movie theater. Again we had staff searching. We thought it was gone for good. A few days later we got a phone call and they had found it! Another time we were out running errands then noticed when we got home it was gone. We back tracked, couldn't find it anywhere. We even filed a missing "persons" at the police station! It was surreal giving a description, "he's red with a big yellow nose..." We tried to order a replacement but the item was discontinued, couldn't find it on ebay either. The surplus store had gone bust. I even e-mailed the original store owner and he couldn't help, although he was very kind. It feels like the death of a family member! It's hard to watch your child grieve the loss of something that brought them such comfort and identity. And then we went shopping to our local store a few days later and there was Elmo, sitting behind one of the checkouts! Kaya's well loved, full of holes and repairs, battered and bruised elmo. That was a warm reunion!
She still has him, but has kind of outgrown him now, at 7 years old. I'm sure she'll keep him into adulthood though, because he's special.
Caleb certainly looks like he has plenty of love to give to that Elephant. <3