Lost Chewy!

Zack had this butterfly chewy toy made by Discovery toys that he was completely addicted to.  We only had one, and I despaired that we'd ever get another because I'm told Discovery Toys doesn't make it anymore.  We took it everywhere, because he was 75% calmer when he had it in his mouth.  Church, grocery stores, school, home with other kids around.....it was all so much easier when Zack had his red butterfly.  He was just less apt to bite someone or scream.

Then a miracle occurred and last weekend at the Dakota County Parent Retreat there was a Discovery Toys vendor who happened to have one, which we bought immediately and I carried it around in my purse like it was gold.  Hooray, now we had two!

Within a couple of days, in the midst of the chaos of taking 3 small children to Target, two of whom need to ride in the cart and touch everything they can reach, I'd left one in a grocery cart.  I checked with Target's lost & found twice, but whoever found it either kept it or threw it away.  Now we were back down to one.

Two days later, the one we had disappeared.  We have no explanation, it's just gone.  So there is a possibility it's in this house somewhere (or the car, or the backyard) and it'll turn up eventually.  We cursed ourselves silently for a while and then I decided it is not good for Zack to be addicted to something that is virtually irreplaceable.  We went to Target and showed him every baby chewy toy they had on the shelf, and he selected one.  Another butterfly, this one is blue.  For the first day he rejected it outright, but by day two he'd put it in his mouth a few times.  Now it's day three, and he still rejects it the first time we offer it, but he comes around after a couple of minutes.

Unfortunately it's no Discovery Toys red butterfly.  He's nowhere near as attached.  But it's all good, because we are now working on getting him to accept a variety of chewy toys, which will make life much easier in the end.

But if that darn red butterfly does turn up, I have a feeling our whole "get used to new chewys" resolve will go right out the window.