The Barney Story

This is so long, but it's one of my favorite K stories.

I have always loved garage saling. To help cut down on K asking for things and teach her a little about money, she always got "two moneys" (50 cents) of her own to spend. She almost always spends it on books, but one day she bought a ratty looking old Barney doll.

I washed him up and he still looked ratty, but at least I knew he was clean. She took him everywhere with her, and Barney and K had many conversations. She always told me what he was saying. You'd be surprised how much a stuffed Barney doll has to say.

Shortly after C was born, the hubby had to go on a trip. It was a decent day, I wasn't back at work yet, so I decided we'd go to the zoo to keep us busy. I think it was brave or stupid to take a toddler and an almost newborn. I had the baby in a sling, the diaper bag over my shoulder, and didn't notice that K had brought Barney till we were in the visitor's center applying sunscreen.

"You shouldn't have brought Barney in the zoo with you. I have too much to carry, so you'll have to be responsible for him" was the last thing I said about Barney that day. We had a great time at the zoo, and then after that, we just drove the extra hour down to grandma and papa's house so I didn't have to be alone with two children.

We had a fun weekend with the family, then as we were packing to go home I realized Barney was missing. K hadn't noticed yet because Barney always stayed in the car. She fell asleep in the car and I surreptitiously called the zoo to see if he had been turned in. No luck, of course.

She still didn't notice for several days. I alerted the hubby to the situation so he would be aware. She finally realized he was gone about a week later, and I carefully explained that she had left Barney at the zoo and some other child probably took him home to love. She was upset, but had taken it in stride when we went to pick up the hubby for a lunch date.

He saw she'd been crying and asked what was wrong, she told him Barney was gone, and he said, "Well, maybe Barney will come home someday." UGH. After that, she would wake up in the morning and tell me she saw Barney walking around outside and trying to get into the house. She'd leave the door open for him, look around all over for him, wish on the first evening star for Barney to come home, tell me she dreamed about Barney, it was constant Barney talk.

One day months later, there were a couple of garage sales listed. I got off work early, but was tired. I decided to just do a drive-by on the garage sales to see if I wanted to stop at them. As I was driving by one, K yelled out, "MOM! They found Barney!" Sure enough, there was a ratty looking stuffed Barney at the garage sale. We pulled in.

She told them all about how she lost Barney at the zoo, but he found his way home all the way from there and she ended up getting him for free (the little scammer). On the way home in the car, she noticed that this Barney was a little bigger than her old Barney.

"He must have gwown while he was gone." She continued chatting with him, and when we got home she told me the whole story about how he made it back to where we live. It was really her Barney, because he told her he was.

These are the moments when I wish I carried a recorder around with me every moment, because her story about how he made it home was so elaborate, and the way she told it was so great.