oooh, so excited for bunny!!
hope everyone else is okay today.
So dd has just been 'reunited' with her missing Lally (lion) after losing him back in August.
The story is this: I ordered a new one from France and have spent a month roughing him up to make him look like the old one. Luckily there are plenty of photos and I have attention to detail 
. He has been soaked in vats of tea. He has been through every conceivable washing cycle. He has had soap rubbed in his hair. He has had his eyes scartched for that old toy cataract-y look. He has had bits of his fur rubbed and matted, and bits of his nose unpicked. He has had the back of his mane singed to replicate the damage done the time dd put him too close the electric heater at the caravan.
There's a locksmith near us with a ratehr fearsome looking robber in the window He's the villain in lots of our stories, usually with the toys rescuing us from being robbed as we sleep. So today, while dd was at nursery, I went in with the now-old looking lion and asked them to let me arrange him with his head poking out of the robber's sack. I got a few "you've got way too much time on your hands, you middle class woman" looks but they were nice and agreeable.
After pick up, I told dd and ds that I needed to go the bakery. We stopped to look at the robber as usual. DD stood stock still, and then started gibbering incoherently. She ran into the shop, gabbled at the man behind the counter. I marched in and said sternly, gesturing to the robber "do you mind if I have a word? I think he has something belonging to my daughter" I told the robber off, rescued Lally from the sack and passed him to dd. I don't think there was a dry eye in the store. Such joy on her little button face. Really really adorable.
Worth every bit of madness. 