Slice of Life: Searching for Love(y)!

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice"

to the Tuesday Slice of Life (SOL) community.

Thanks to Stacey, Betsy, Beth, Kathleen,
Deb, Melanie, Lanny, and Kelsey

 for hosting this meeting place each Tuesday
and nurturing our writing lives.

My afternoons with grandson Jack follow a fairly predictable routine. After lunch, we play a bit, get some milk, do a diaper change, and head to the rocker to read and drink. After reading two or three books, Jack is zipped into his sleep sack, he grabs his  pacifier and lovey, and we head back to the rocker for a couple of songs before he's down for a nap.  

It's a routine that he's very familiar with, and it's very comforting for him. Except for one day last week when we lost his lovey! 

I was sure that it was somewhere close by, but after a quick scan of the rooms of the house, we had to get more intentional about our search. I told Jack we were looking for his lovey and he helped me look, even getting down on the floor with me to peer under the furniture and helping me look in the drawers and cupboards that he frequently opens. 

Finally, in desperation, I texted his mom (my daughter):  "I can't find this boy's lovey. Anything he'll take as a substitute?"

And her response: "What?!?  It's not on the bed?"

I replied, "He had it this morning after a diaper change."

And she texted, " Hmmm, you could try Larry (his bear) or Ed (his elephant) or his little white bunny."

I grabbed the bear and the bunny, zipped Jack back into his sleep sack (we'd taken it off while searching the house), and headed for the rocker. When I handed him the bear, he threw him across the room. Same treatment for the little white bunny. There was no way this boy was going to sleep without his lovey.

So we zipped out of the sleep sack again to resume our frantic search of the house, looking again in all the same places, just in case we had overlooked his blue lovey (which coincidentally is a bunny). By this point I was almost in tears and wishing that the spare lovey (sequestered at my house) was hanging out here instead. As we headed out of the kitchen, I noticed a spot of blue in the kitchen sink. I stepped back, peered into the sink, and sure enough there was Jack's lovey!

And that's when I remembered that after I had changed Jack's dirty diaper, we headed to the garage with the diaper (all tied up in a plastic newspaper bag). And then I stopped off at the kitchen sink to wash my hands. And that's when Jack must have dropped his lovey in the sink!

Quick as a bunny, we zipped back into the sleep sack, grabbed the pacifier, and Jack snuggled up with his lovey. I'm not sure who was more relieved, Jack or Grandma. He was asleep before I could even finish one verse of a favorite song! And the extra lovey at Grandma's house? It's living at Jack's house now. Maybe it's time for Grandma to order another one for her house.

Here's Jack enjoying his lovey 

and a story with Grandpa on Friday.