Puppy

You all know Nathanael’s Puppy. There is nothing in this world more important to him then his Puppy. It’s a little blue puppy with a soother sewn onto it. Michaela gave it to him the day we met him, and although I force him to keep it in the crib, he live for that puppy. All I have to say at bedtime is “let’s go see Puppy!”, and Nate scrambles up to bed quicker then any 2 year old I’ve ever met. I even bought a second one, exactly the same, just in case he ever lost his (or if it fell apart from so much loving). He won’t touch, or even look at the second one. He knows his Puppy.
I wash Puppy every few months because he gets really grungy. So far this has never caused a problem. Nate recently had a really bad cold, and Puppy was getting really gross! I ran him through the wash the other day, and was broken-hearted to find that Nate no longer recognized him. He cries when I put him to bed, cries in the morning and cries all nap time, looking for his best friend, but not knowing where he has gone. I’ve never felt so sad for Nate, but didn’t know what to do.
Finally today I tried a new strategy, I let Michaela walk around all afternoon, holding Puppy, and sucking on the soother. For the first half hour, Nate didn’t mind, then all of a sudden he reached for Puppy, and when Michaela wouldn’t give him back, Nate flipped out. I gave him his Puppy back, and he hasn’t put him down since. Phew! Nate is too young to have lost his best friend.