Minor Miracles

Sometimes, the gods do nice things for us. Like today. We went to Walmart to pick up bedding for Nathan's new bed (he's finally outgrowing the crib) along with a few other necessities. Nathan brought a few toys, a plastic pig and a small plastic Muppet Babies Kermit. These two are his current favourites, they go along pretty much everywhere.

I wasn't paying as much attention as I probably should have, trying to remember everything we needed to pick up. I was feeling rather satisfied when we got to the checkout counter and suddenly I realize that we have a disaster in the making.

Kermit is missing.

Nathan is looking at me expectantly, as if he's waiting for me to pull Kermit out of the various articles in the cart and give him back. The clerk is looking at me as if I might be mildly crazy as I start searching through everything. No luck. The frog is definitely gone. Lost somewhere in a major box store that we've just wandered through.

Not good.

I pay for our purchases and start to retrace our steps with the sinking certainty that there is no real chance that we're going to find Kermit again. I can't even go out and get a replacement Kermit because this is one that I got in a Happy Meal from McDonald's when I was six or seven. Nathan is beginning to get upset that I am not producing his favourite toy and the staff and other customers are starting to get the same expression as the clerk as I wheel down the aisles, staring at the ground, searching for a little green figure.

After double checking all of the places we visited and spending a fair amount of brainpower to remember just which aisles we walked down while going between those places, I give up. I bravely tell my two year old that his toy is gone, vanished into the ether. I try to spin the story that maybe some other child picked it up and now Kermit will go to make that family happy. Yeah, Nathan didn't buy that one either. But he's handling it pretty well and I resign myself to leaving the store, frog-less, when I spot something.

A little green figure standing on a shelf with a wide grin. Our very own Kermit.

Nathan was very happy to get his friend back, offering him big hugs and several smacking kisses. I take a moment to thank the gods for kindly guiding me to that particular shelf.

Everyone who has lost a toy, or had a child who has lost a toy, knows the astronomical odds against finding a two inch figurine in a department store. So thank you to whoever was listening. Kermit is now safely back at home and shoved under the couch where he belongs.