As part of my ongoing quest to record incidents in which I am Very Lucky in this blog, I have to mention our visit to the WalMart last week.

All three of our kids have a Special Friend, one particular stuffed animal that they sleep with. Little Miss Sunshine has Hero, a brown bear that we purchased before she was born. I shopped for ages for Hero, looking for just the right thing to be her little sleep buddy. Hero was close to what I was looking for, not exactly perfect but close enough, and I was freaking about this one stupid thing, so we bought Hero.

Then, just before the Little Miss was born, I was wandering in the toy aisle at the Superstore and I saw Pinkydoo. A little pink bear. I knew immediately that I HAD to have her. She was so perfect. So she came home with me too.

Hero is the sleep buddy because we bought two of him, in order to have a backup, just in case, but it’s been clear for the past few months that Little Miss Sunshine loves Pinkydoo just as much, if not more. When she’s sleeping she has to have Hero in her hand, but when she wakes up, she looks for Pinkydoo right away. Pinkydoo can always calm her down when she’s sad; Pinkydoo can keep her occupied for an hour at a time in her playpen. Pinkydoo is her best friend.

When we went to the WalMart, the Little Miss had Pinkydoo in her hand and didn’t want to leave her behind, so I stupidly let the bear come along for the ride.

Then I even more stupidly let her bring Pinkydoo in the stroller, to cuddle with as I shopped. With all three kids. For a BATHING SUIT. It was a little stressful. I forgot about the bear.

By the time we got back to the van and I was loading everyone into car seats, it hit me. Pinkydoo was gone. My daughter’s favourite plaything, her BEST BUDDY, gone! Possibly lost forever!

This is the kind of thing that really pushes me over the edge into Hysterical Mommy territory.

So I told the older two kids what the problem was, and they swung into action like a little A-team (I call Hannibal!). They jumped out of the van and I grabbed the stroller and we all ran back to the store at top speed. Gal Smiley called out, “Pinkydoo! Here Pinkydoo!” along the way like she expected the pink bear to come running right over. The Captain made a scanning scope for his eyes with his hands and bleep-blooped back and forth, checking every corner.

We retraced our steps and shortly after running inside I stopped an employee who had helped us before. I told him we’d lost a little pink bear and what should we do?

Then, a man standing not two feet away said, “Oh, it’s your bear! My son found it.” So he turns to his 10-year-old (or so) boy, and says, “Where’s that pink bear you found?” And the boy says, “I know exactly!” and he leads us directly to where Pinkydoo is sitting on a bank machine at the other end of the store.

I almost cried with relief.

I am One. Lucky. Mommy.

Pinkydoo is staying home from now on.