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Life Without Ba, Day 1

I suppose we should have expected some resistance, but we were blissfully optimistic. After all, she said she was ready. So remind me the next time I count on a three year old to accurately assess her emotional ability to handle a major life change.

The trouble began about 1:30am when Kathryn found the puppy. With a disgruntled look she pulled on our sheets and begged me to come to her room. Phrases such as "I wanted a BLUE puppy" and "I changed my mind", and your general weeping and gnashing of teeth, were characteristic of the next 45 minutes. Sometime in that hour, she gave him the name "Scruffles", which I thought a rather endearing name. Maybe the puppy would make it after all. Eventually I made it back to bed.

Then a half hour later, I heard her door slam. A mommy tip-off from Kathryn "I don't want you to see what's going on in my room, mom." I stumbled back to her room and found the light on. She was rummaging through her stuffed animal basket to see if perhaps the Benkie Fairy had left a BLUE puppy somewhere else. Ellie was especially disheartened to hear that, no, it's not morning time, and mommy isn't here to play. Another 30 minutes pass...

A weeping Kathryn at our bedside. I think the realization must have hit at this point... "My ba is gone, and all I have is this stupid puppy, and what's worse, he's not blue." More discussion, more comforting... "I guess it's a good thing that when you came out of my tummy, I didn't tell the nurse, "I wanted a BLUE Kathryn! Send her back!", I tried. At this point, Kathryn ran from the room, flinging the puppy with force into the bathroom. I think that by about 4am, we all finally fell back asleep, Kathryn on the floor next to our bed. Poor Scruffles was sentenced to his first night alone in the bathtub.

By the light of dawn, (which came painfully soon) Scruffles looked a bit more inviting. Whereas in the middle of the night, he only looked drab brown, we discovered by morning that he actually had more golden tones. And we thought that perhaps, though we can't turn Scruffles blue, maybe we can give him a blue collar. We had a short photo shoot. Kathryn decided it would be better to keep Scruffles than give her to Ellie. (Ellie's efforts to steal him throughout the morning gave him a bit more value in K's eyes.) We made it through the first day. And, what mommy finds curious is that in all the discussion about Scruffles, the dearly departed "ba" was never mentioned. So maybe there is hope.

It's 8pm, night 2. My only hope is that she will be too exhausted to ponder the fate of her "ba" and we will all sleep through the night...

Poor Scruffles. Doesn't he look sweet?