Leaving It All Behind

As a parent, there is precious little upside to being right.  Saying, "I told you so," is cold comfort as young Jimmy is writhing on the ground at your feet, suffering from a broken arm after climbing too high in the tree out back.  Most of the time, you wish your dire predictions were wrong.  That darting out in the street without looking first would always turn out okay.  That eating food found on the dirty ground wouldn't give you worms.  And that taking your most special toys out for the day didn't carry a certain amount of risk of losing them.

One of the difficulties of cruising is that, if you leave something behind, you'd better figure it out before you sail away.  Because Erik and I, hard-hearted as we are, are not turning back unless we are related to the item in question.

We consider the vast majority of our possessions to be replaceable, but some things are special.  Namely, Dinah and Red Teddy.

Dinah is a pink cat, much-loved, much-battered, and typically found under Stylish's head at night.  Dinah is a sedentary creature and lives in bed.  So far, so good.  However, her counterpart, Red Teddy, roams the decks with Indy, and can be found pretty much anywhere shy of the spreaders.

We have been "home" for nearly three weeks now, and we have done a lot of visiting.  And every time we leave the house, Indy insists that Red Teddy (and his cousin, Brown Teddy) go, too. 

"You're going to lose them," I say.
"No, I won't," says Indy.
"They'll get left behind and you'll be so sad."
"No they won't."

Most of the time, I'm secure enough in my mean momhood that I say 'no' anyway.  But, on Sunday, we went to visit friends for brunch, and I decided it wouldn't hurt for Indy to have something to play with.

We were about 50 km along the return trip when I realized that the teddies had been left behind.

Indy was, predictably, devastated.  But what was waiting for us in my inbox when we got home?  A note from our friends, telling us the stowaway teddies had been discovered, and inviting them to stay for the week. 

Hangin' with the capybaras.

Reading a story.

Knight fights.

 

Do they have Angry Birds on this thing?

 

Spanish coffee and rumcakes.  Aaaarrr, matey.
 

So.  Tired.
 

As you can see, everything is well in hand.  Indy gets excited every time we have a new report from the teddies and, while she would rather have them here, she understands that they are having their own adventure this week.

I've talked a lot about the wonderful, kind and generous people we have met since we have been cruising.  It is nice to be reminded that our friends back home are just as awesomely fantastic.