LouLou reincarnate

For those who don't know, LouLou was Elizabeth's first doll - the one she received from Aunt Erin on her first Christmas. She has always been Elizabeth's favorite doll and has been on every trip we've taken. LouLou has been Elizabeth's constant companion for the past 2-1/2 years.











LouLou is particularly important during family reunions because she wards off World War III when we visit Cousin Brooke, who has LouLou's twin - Zoe. Here are the two dolls hanging out together:



Just a little background information to help you understand why an ominous feeling fell over the car yesterday when David and I realized on the way home from Ridgecrest that we did not have LouLou in the car with us. Two possiblities existed: 1) LouLou was in Gran's car, or 2) we had left LouLou in one of our hotel rooms. Since Gran was still at Ridgecrest, I quickly called her cell phone and left her a message to make sure she had LouLou before she left. That would have been a great plan - if she had gotten the message before she made it back to Kentucky. Sure enough, Gran arrived without LouLou. Although we left a message with the conference center's Lost and Found, I've never once received anything back from a hotel that I've inquired about, so I was not feeling hopeful.

So, this morning, as we were preparing to go shopping, I remembered that Elizabeth had received a gift card for her birthday that we still hadn't used. So, I decided we should go ahead and try to find a replacement for LouLou. I figured we needed to try to circumvent the meltdown of epic proportions that would undoubtedly occur if Elizabeth went looking for LouLou later and was unable to find her. I told Elizabeth we were going to get a new LouLou, and warned her that she might not look exactly like the old LouLou. With that in mind, we headed off to the store.

Imagine my excitement when I looked on the very top shelf in the doll aisle and saw LouLou's twin staring down at me. They still had them in stock! And, they had one left in a pink outfit - not the same one, but it had a cat on it, which was even better in Elizabeth's opinion! So, I loaded LouLou2 in the cart and prepared to leave, very happy and relieved.

Then, all of a sudden, Elizabeth let out a shout of protest when she saw a Dora doll and decided she didn't want LouLou2 for her present - she wanted Dora. I had to think about it. Our family just didn't seem complete without LouLou. But, this was Elizabeth's birthday gift card, and I had told her previously she could use it to pick out anything she wanted. So, I decided it was only fair to let Elizabeth pick out her own present. Of course, the Dora doll was more than the amount on her gift card, so she then had to learn the cruel lesson that you can only buy what you can afford. After much discussion, she chose a Dora camera as her birthday present.

So, Elizabeth ended up happy and so did I. Me too, you wonder? Oh - I forgot to mention that I ended up buying the LouLou2 doll also. There was no way I was letting go of her after I'd found her. So, I guess technically, LouLou2 was for ME.

When we got home, Elizabeth happily started playing with her camera.



(Which by the way came with 100 little tiny pictures we knew nothing about...ugh...more mess!)

Despite my prodding, Elizabeth didn't seem to want anything to do with the LouLou2 doll. So, I took her out of the package and quietly put her in the stroller that had always been reserved for LouLou #1. Then, I waited.



Sure enough, within 15 minutes, Elizabeth had stopped playing with her camera and was giving LouLou2 a bath and putting her to bed.





Order is restored to our little piece of the universe - for now.