My husband Adam's younger brother Josh, is an Awesome Uncle. Yesterday, Uncle Josh sent Lauren Elizabeth an adorable little stuffed animal for her fourth birthday. When she opened her gift, she hugged the soft little critter and squished her face up to it. I couldn't quite make out what type of animal it was, but it wore a cute orange and white checkered apron that had a baby tucked inside.
Lauren held her new best friend out to take a look at her and studied her face saying, "Mommy? What is it?"
"Ummmmmm, I don't know baby. Maybe a Mommy Fox and her little one?"
Without hesitation, Lauren hugged it again and said, "I Love You Foxy Mommy."
Choking back a laugh, I said, "Whoaaa, Lauren...how about we call her, 'Mommy Fox,' okay?"
"Okay Mommy! Oooooh, Foxy Mommy. I Love You."
-oh boy.-
All day she carried "Foxy Mommy" with her everywhere. Upstairs, downstairs, to her room, outside to play..."Foxy Mommy" had a full schedule.
When Lauren went to bed last night, 'Foxy Mommy' went with her. When she woke up, Lauren had a long conversation with 'Foxy Mommy." We went to the grocery store this morning and 'Foxy Mommy' sat in the cart with her.
As Lauren talked to 'Foxy Mommy' while we shopped, some obvious glances were thrown our way.
"Foxy Mommy, do you want some cereal?"
"Oh this is my FAVORITE kind of juice, Foxy Mommy!"
(You get the idea.)
Fighting the urge to explain to everyone we passed that we didn't actually have our daughter refer to me as 'Foxy Mommy', I ended up deciding that it was a useless battle.
Everything was somewhat tolerable until the end of our trip. Lauren jumped out of the cart and held tightly to her friend. She introduced 'Foxy Mommy' to the fun checkout girl who started laughing. We loaded our bags back into the cart and made our way out...Thank You Lord.
An older gentleman walked behind us and I realized that he was trying to get our attention. I worried that he was offended by Lauren's words - or wanted to confront me. He continued to approach us saying, "Miss...Miss..." (Here we go...)
I slowly turned to try to explain, when I saw that he was holding something in his hand.
"Is this her toy, Miss?"
It looked like he had a stuffed little mouse. I smiled and shook my head no - while getting ready to thank him. Before I could though, Lauren Elizabeth shot straight towards him screaming, "FOXY BABY!!!"
The man's face dropped, I cringed - and the checkout girl about fell over laughing saying, "You GO, Girl!"
I'm still trying to decide exactly what to write in our Thank You card to Uncle Josh.