GPS for toys

I'm seriously thinking of inventing something like this. It needs to be done. Any parent of a child with a lovey will agree.

Our son has a lovie. You may have seen him make appearances in pictures. He's a blue elephant, shaped like a starfish. His name is Ellie. We have four Ellies. Original Ellie is put up in a closet. He's a little on the rough side, and I wanted to keep him pretty much intact so that Jack can have him to keep forever. We have three Ellies that are part of the normal wash rotation.

We went away to PA this weekend to visit Gary's family. (Check back tomorrow for Wordless Wednesday pics) We took two Ellies, just in case something drastic happened.

Well, something drastic did in fact happen. We lost an Ellie. He took two into the grocery store with us. And that was the last time we remember him having two Ellies in his possession. I have no clue where it was lost, or how. I just know it's lost. So we get through the rest of the weekend with one Ellie. I'm in panic attack mode at this point. Knowing we lost the Ellie that was in the best condition, we are now down to two ratty and tattered Ellies.

These elephants are from JC Penny. That's all I know. I got on the computer last night, and was up until 3am trying to track down this infamous pachyderm. I ended up finding him, and the company he's made by on a woman's website for lost toys. You can purchase these stuffed animals that she's collected up. Ellie was going for $30 on her site. Knowing his maker, I headed over to Ebay, praying to find him there for cheaper.

Well, I found him. But not for cheaper. He ranged in price from $32-49. Are you kidding me?! This $8 elephant is $50 on Ebay. There's some smart cookies out there. Pick up some baby stuffed animals that are probably someone's lovey, list them on Ebay for outrageous prices, and pray that there are desperate parents out there like me that will pay that much money to replace their kid's stuffed animal.

I did find an auction for an Ellie that started at $9.99. I put it on my watch list. All day long no one bid on it. It's got less than 3 days left on it. I prayed alllll day. No bids. Please no bids. We NEED this Ellie. I got home from work, sure enough, it had been bid on. I had no choice but to bid. We are currently at $15.50, winning with the highest bid. This could get ugly. I know it will.

Somehow I will replace this Ellie. And then I will invent that GPS system and place one in every Ellie we own. I can't afford to lose another Ellie. LITERALLY.