Has Anyone Seen Charley?

We lost Charley, it was very sad. Yesterday we went to a Chinese food restruant in Havre, and I accidently opened the glass door into Hudson's face. I felt horrible, so I offered to buy him a 25cent toy from the machine in the Chinese Food place. It was a squishy pink pig that Hudson immediately named Charley, "No, mommy, it's a girl Charlie..." oh, my mistake... and played with her quite happily for about 30 minutes; talking to her, laughing at her jokes, and giving her all sorts of magical abilities...

Then we went to Ben Franklins, and Hudson was supposed to wait in the car with daddy, but Hudson had to go potty so daddy took him inside... Somewhere between the van and the bathroom Hudsons mittened little hand lost its grip on the squishy little pig and Charley was lost. We searched and searched but in the end, I had to say, "Sorry honey, Charley is gone."

I have never seen this child cry so hard in my life. As Grandpa was driving away, Hudson wailed, "Stop! Stop! Go back! We need to find Charley!" When bribed with all sorts of things I thought could replace Charley, hudson would cry, "I don't want ____, I want CHARLEY!"

I mean he only had it for a little while, but he was very attached. I felt so helpless and close to tears myself. I could do NOTHING to help him. I want to go back and pump quarters into the machine to buy a new one, but I can't afford to waste more money and we probably won't get back to the place for a while.

Grandma moore said, "Let's hope he forgets about it," b ut this morning when we climbed in the van to go to church Hudson's first question was, "Are we going back to get Charley now?"

:( Poor little kid...