Winner of the Mean Mommy award

My daughter is obsessed with stuffed animals.  I know you're thinking, "Yeah?  So is every kid."  Oh yeah?  Check this out:



This isn't all of them because I can't seem to find the subject of this blog post.  Ironically, that's what got me the award in the first place, a missing "friend."

About a year ago, I started squirreling away stuffed animals that I didn't see getting a lot of action.  I amassed a half a closet full of wayward friends.  Scout and Violet were some of the first victims of Operation Pare Down the Ridiculous Number of Stuffed Animals Laying on the Floor by Kaia's Bed.  My kids had a My Pal Scout and a My Pal Violet.  For those of you who don't know, they're interactive dogs in green and purple.  They can be programmed to say your child's name, put it in a song, share their favorite food and play with your kid.  When they were super little, they kind of played with them, but hardly ever despite my confidence that they were awesome toys.

I am not exaggerating when I say the NEVER asked for those freaking dogs.  So after about six months in isolation, I put together a box of friends to take to Goodwill.  A few months ago, Kaia randomly asked me for "that purple friend that says Kaia and sings."  I played dumb and said, "Huh, I have no idea where Violet is." That was satisfactory until about a week ago.

We're in the car, on the way to Grandma's, when Kaia asks again about the purple friend.  I play dumb long enough to realize I wasn't going to get away with it this time.  So I say, "Kaia, Mommy gave Scout and Violet to some kids who don't have as many friends as you and Mikko do.  You didn't play with it much, so I thought someone else might really love it and you wouldn't miss it since you have so many other friends you really love.  I'm sure we've made another child really, really happy."  Read:  guilt, justification, excuse, plea.

She wanted to know who had it, when she would get it back, what they were doing with it, where it was....  Then she wanted to know WHY her Mommy would give away her toys.  She really loved Violet, you know?  That first fifteen minutes of honesty was brutal.  She pouted the rest of the ride and wouldn't tell Grandma what was wrong when we arrived.  I explained, feeling awful.  After that, although she's talked about it a few times since, it has really died down.  I thought maybe she'd forgiven me or at least forgotten.

That is, I thought she'd forgiven me until last night.  Grandma and Grandpa were here babysitting and Kaia went to look for her favorite Dora jammies at bedtime (in the hamper because that's just what she does) and couldn't find them.  Guess what she told Grandma Tiny?  "Mommy probably gave them to some other kid!"

Sigh.