The Spare

As I reflect back on the chaos and anarchy of the past few hours of today, I am mindful of a parenting adage which I will have to pass on to my friend, whose baby shower I unfortunately spaced on today. And that is, "If they have a 'lovey', keep a spare."

I didn't think DD was going to be attached to any one particular stuffed animal or blanket or whatnot, and indeed for the first two and a half years she didn't develop any particular affections. She did go through a spurt of wanting a set of farm animals (small, thank goodness) in bed with her, but those fell out of favor and then there was a long spell in which she was happy to just be surrounded with an assortment of stuffed animals and blankets at bedtime, with her stories read to her while she lay (drowsily, if we were lucky) cocooned and listening to the bedtime stories and asking for water, etc.

A few months ago, however, it became clear that one of the stuffed animals was an absolute necessity at bedtime, and that is, Lamby. Fortunately for us, we have two Lambs, which kind friends bequeathed as baby gifts. So we were set with Lamb and the Spare. Various misfortunes have befallen Lamby, and the original was jammed with strawberry jam. I decided to wash Lamby, and then found a de-stuffed Lamb in the dryer, with bits of polyester fluff clinging to all the clothes. I dutifully removed all the fluff, re-stuffed Lamby, and then let it sit on the dryer for about four or five months, because I needed to re-stitch the seams and didn't bother doing it right then. The spare was deployed, and all was well.

Then there came today. Today was wildly busy, with a free playset to be collected (DH's job, it took 2+ hours to disassemble and bring home the bits), more frenetic garden work to be done, kids to be fed/entertained/napped/etc., and a baby shower to be attended. We got the playset, but it will take a good few weeks to get it re-assembled, thanks to some new hardware that needs to be purchased (bolts, etc). So that is all stacked up next to our cottage. The kids were up early, slept poorly last night, and so napped early too. DD had a meltdown in the parking lot at Costco, so I nixed that shopping trip and deployed fast food (drive-thru) for lunch, an hour earlier than normal. I got the kids in bed for their naps, then slogged through digging the rest of the mounded beds in our veggie garden. Kids were up, all were at play outside, while DH broke out the weed whacker (firepit ring), then the chainsaw (fallen tree branches from December). I borrowed the neighbor's front-loader to do the last line of digging in the veggie bed, turned our compost piles, and in a fit of what can only be called insanity, called and invited a friend and the two college student choir members they are hosting for the evening before our church concert tomorrow, for dinner.

That is when it all went absolutely chaotic. Our friend showed up, and the two amiable college students settled in. My daughter was tired and out of sorts, but I had no idea how out of sorts until she threw up all over herself in the kitchen. Erg, okay...a once-off? I got her cleaned up, put on her jammies, and let her watch a video on the computer. Rounded up the guests, headed out to the deck to enjoy the great outdoors for dinner, and then came back in to DD puking again, all over the computer chair and herself. OH. Dear. I excused myself, gave her a bath, got her cleaned up, calmed down, in a new pair of jammies, and she insisted on coming out to the deck because she wanted to see our friend. Ok, fine. Nothing to eat except 2 teaspoons of apple sauce, which she didn't touch. Only water.

Well, she couldn't keep water down. She's on her fourth pair of pajamas. Our friend and her college student choir guests fled shortly thereafter, with us praying that they don't catch whatever bug DD has. DS spit up once, as if testing us, so we're praying he doesn't have it, too. I have emergency laundry loads cycling through the washer & dryer. I am not sure if our computer chair (upholstered, unfortunately) will ever be clean again...I will have to borrow a steam cleaner for it. And DD, bless her heart, went to bed asking for more water, which we would not give her...and Lamby. The last time she threw up, she hit Lamby too.

So, here I sat, with needle and white thread, and the spare Lamby, finally sewing it back together after months of sitting on the dryer. In about five minutes I had whipstitched the seam, and if a little lumpy, it was at least in one piece and ready for cuddling and nighttime reassuring. I brought Lamby in to DD, who was snuggled down and looking a little wan. "Why does it look like this?" she asked. Clearly it looked somehow different. DH assured her it was because I cleaned Lamby, since she 'spit up' on it; and that placated her and she snuggled quite happily with her little Lamby. I hope Lamby keeps her cozy and content all night.