Lovey Surgery and advice

Katie, like most kids has a Lovey. (I hate that term by the way - I prefer Favorite toy or something of that sort) Here they are at their first meeting - she was barely crawling and he was young and plump and pretty.

Anyway - she has an ABSOLUTE FAVORITE that she must sleep with every night and that has to come on long car rides with us. Luckily for us, she doesn't insist on taking it into everywhere we go, and we always made sure to explain to her that that wasn't an option - because I don't want it getting dirty or lost - so it always stays in the car and waits for us.

Anyway... we had learned early on by watching our friends that once your kid adopts a favorite, (you will never be able to determine which toy will be their favorite - try as you might!!!)
it's best to have a duplicate. We have also heard horror stories of lost faves and trying to replace them and children rejecting them because they don't smell right or look right like this;

Our good friends son had a bear that he very quickly decided was his favorite, but before they realized just how serious the addiction to the bear was, it started getting grungy from every day use... (you know what I'm talking about)

By the time they realized they needed to find a back up - it was too late - Bear Bear was too worn and comfy and the new one was new and just all around WRONG (plus hard to find as he was bought by a family member in a little shop somewhere - so not exactly readily available)
- so he would never take new bear bear over old bear bear.

Bear Bear has gone under a few minor surgeries to fix eyes, and tears and rips... all of which were pretty traumatic for the boy and I didn't want to have an emergency situation with Katie - so I tried to plan ahead.

I personally remember when my mother had to give my Favorite Cabbage Patch baths in the washing machine and how miserable I would be to be without him for a few hours...
I still have him - He lives in my room and isn't allowed to play with Katie for very long.:)
Anyone know what his name is???? Bonus points if you comment it first! Maybe I'll send you something fun in the mail!


So, we watched and we learned and I told myself that as soon as she "picked a fave" I was going to get a back up and then swap them out every few weeks so that they would wear down evenly and she wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
Here they are when I first bought Ba Ba number 2. They look fat and plump and happy and bright and cheerful.
We've been swapping them out every few weeks for about 6 months now.
(and by "we", I mean me of course, cause it's totally a mom thing and Dave is kinda clueless... every once in awhile I will let him know that I swapped them - just so he feels like he's part of it!!!)
It's worked like a charm!! She can't tell the difference and neither one is really grungy. She has caught me a few times and seen both of them. The last time was a month or 2 ago and made me worried, because she was old enough to remember that she had 2 and I was afraid she'd figured me out. I was able to stealthily hide the second one when she wasn't looking and she hasn't asked about him since... but - my window for that is gone, if she finds them both now - she will remember and the Jig will be up! So we hide the second one in our blanket chest now underneath the extra sheets!!!!



This was her the last time she saw them both - she kept saying... 2 ba ba's and after I hid the second one - she said - mommy, more babas??? luckily we distracted her and she forgot!

Here is a picture of them now....





As you can see, they have seen better days! They can't even hold their heads up and they are starting to fade in color. My dilemma now is that I want to add some stuffing to them so that they perk up a bit - but I'm afraid to open a seam. Every time I'm ready to perform surgery on the back up one, I chicken out for some reason.


Does anyone have any suggestions for the best spot to open up a stuffed toy and re-close without ruining it?????

So... new parents - trust me, as soon as your kid picks a favorite - BUY A SECOND one... it's TOTALLY worth it. As ours is a Webkinz... it cost us $25 bucks and bought us a second year of the online game subscription that she loves playing with on the computer. So it was win win for us!

Scour Ebay and Amazon if you have to - but you will be glad that you did when the original one gets filthy or worse, and you have a second one ready to go that has been swapped out periodically so they look, feel and smell the same and your child doesn't know the difference and you can avoid the Lovey Breakdown!!!!

I hope you all have a good week - we are off for our holiday travels and I will be back posting next week!

Goodluck on Black Friday for any of you that actually brave it!