Much ado about a pig

Mia went with me to get our truck serviced at Sears…so naturally, we walked the mall while we waited.  The new Target is right in the mall now, so we were scoping the toys when Mia spotted the Olivia dollhouse she so wants.  Right above it were little Olivias in different costumes that she wears on her daydream adventures.  Being obsessed with “going to the ballet” recently, Mia wanted the Olivia in her trademark red ballet tutu.  Sure, okay.  It’s five bucks so I don’t mind.  So we were off to walk the rest of the mall.  We go in a few stores - Kids’ Journeys (to ooh at the new Gabba Vans!), Old Navy, The Children’s Place, Gymboree.  When we get to Gymboree, Mia wanted to sit with a little girl a few years older than she is and watch the cartoons they had playing on the TV.  So she asked me if she could take her new Olivia to show her new friend.  I said okay and took it out of the bag to hand it over.  Mia proudly showed off her Olivia, telling the girl who she was and that she’s going to the ballet.  She’s just talking this girl’s ear off.  The little girl was a doll.  She just sat and listened and was very sweet to Mia.  When it was time for us to go, Mia threw a little stink, which I knew she would.  She cried a little on the way out and was throwing a little ‘tude around, but she still had Olivia.  When we finished at JC Penney and started to leave the store, I noticed her hands were empty.  “Mia, where’s Olivia?”  You know that “deer in the headlights” look?  Yeah, that was it.  Even though it was a $5 pig, it still gave me that sick to your stomach feeling you get when you lose something.  She then kept asking me “Mamma, where’s Olivia?”  I told her she must have dropped her and I’m almost certain someone picked her up and kept her as their own.  Who’s going to turn in a little pig to the lost and found? (I would, but maybe that’s just me)  But I still retraced our steps, checking the stores we went in and lost and found and sure enough, nobody turned her in.  Now she’s a wreck and throwing a full-on crying fit yelling out “OLIVIAAAAA!” through the mall.  Oh, that’s lovely.  I’m frantically scanning all areas of the ground as we walked, searching for that little pig.  “OLIVIAAAA!”  People are starting to stare.  “OLIVIAAA!”  Would somebody please get this girl a damn Olivia?!  Embarrassing?  Just a little.  But I’m totally used to it by now.  She’s somehow numbed my shame reflex with her fit-throwing over the past couple of years. 

Her Daddy just happened to call me so I tried to brief him on the situation over the screaming child in the background.  She got on the phone with him and said, “Daddy, I dropped my Olivia!  The little girl found her and she took her!”  Wait, what?  Ohhh, I see.  Since I told her someone else probably found her, she automatically assumed it was her new friend she had just made and was sharing her Olivia with.  Poor kid got the blame.  Even if she did find Olivia, that’s probably the least we could have done for her after Mia just talked her ear off for 5 minutes straight.  So her Daddy talked to her, telling her he would get her a new Olivia.  I told him not to bother, I’d get it since we were still there.

So I walked into Target, yet again, to repurchase the same Olivia that I had bought not one hour earlier…and purchased it from the very same cashier, who was now trying not to laugh.  Oh, come on!  There couldn't have even been one other customer in front of or behind us to buffer the situation, right?  Just us, which made it all the more awkward.  I casually tossed the Olivia on the conveyor and tried to have a look on my face like, What?  Everything's normal.  I purchase multiple Olivias over the course of a day all the time.  Don't you?  As the lone Olivia shamefully made her way down the otherwise empty conveyor belt, the cashier said, “She lost her, huh?”  I just smiled.  “Ooof course she did.”  When Mia got her hands on her new Olivia, she said, “Olivia!  You’re back!  You found her, Mamma!”  She didn’t realize that her first Olivia was long gone.  She didn’t realize that I just walked all the way back to Target to get her a new one.  The things we do for our kids…