Stinky's Glorious Return

We had a bit of a crisis this week. Stinky Monkey, Hays's beloved monkey lovey that he's had since he was a tiny NICU resident, disappeared. Hays had him Sunday afternoon while I was fixing lunch, but by nap time, he was nowhere to be found. We looked for him in all the usual places, but still hadn't found him by bedtime. This was unusual, but not unheard of.

The search intensified on Monday. We had checked all of the hiding spots (well, all the ones we know about), so we started searching every nook and cranny. We literally searched under every piece of furniture, in every closet/hamper/drawer, in the air vents, in the refrigerator, everywhere. Matt even searched through the previous day's trash to see if Haysie had tossed poor Stinky in, but he was nowhere to be found.

I'm not going to lie, at this point I was literally praying for Stinky's return. Stinky is special. He was a gift from my cousins and their children, and Hays has slept with Stinky since he was a few weeks old. In fact, when he was in the NICU, he slept on Stinky. He was so tiny that his little body fit perfectly on that soft monkey. So I couldn't stand the thought that we might have lost him forever. But we had checked every place we could possibly check, and we were starting to lose hope.

Tuesday and Wednesday passed with no sign of Stinky Monkey. Hays had given up, and was sleeping with Will's monkey. He's just like Stinky, only a lighter color, and Will had very kindly offered it to Hays to sleep with him. I had accepted the fact that we might not see Stinky again, but we were all sad about it. (Not to mention wracking our brains about how that monkey could have just disappeared into thin air!!)

But this afternoon, wonder of wonders, a miracle occurred. Hays found Stinky!!!!!! Turns out, he had hidden him in the front pocket of Mason's backpack and zipped him up. We never put anything in that pocket, so we had no idea he was there. It just so happened that Hays was playing with Mason's backpack today and discovered him. He ran up to me with a huge smile on his face, proudly brandishing his beloved monkey!! We were all ridiculously excited. There was so much cheering and hugging- it was actually kind of absurd.

We were all relieved to have Stinky back. None more than Hays, who immediately grabbed all his blankies, piled them on the couch, and demanded that I come cuddle with him and Stinky. And he's had his trusty monkey by his side ever since! So Stinky's back, and we've discovered a new hiding spot, and everyone will be resting easy tonight!!