Just Buy the Stuffed Animal
I hate stuffed animals. They don’t get played with and get smelly and dirty easily, so Kinsley only has a handful. Over the last few months, she has become obsessed with mermaids + unicorns. At the end of November, I went in Walmart and took her with me. I was grabbing a couple of Christmas cookie supplies in the Christmas isle, and on the other side of the isle was the dreaded row of alllllll the stuffed animals. As soon as she saw this unicorn, she excitedly goes, “Oh mom, look! It’s a unicorn! She’s so pretty! .... I wish I could have a pretty unicorn like her.” She never asked for me to get it for her and seeing it was a stuffed animal, I just told her, maybe another time. Two weeks later I needed one more thing of frosting and took her back to Walmart with me, same isle. Same conversation.
The Monday of Christmas week I needed to grab a couple last minute things for meals that week. I went alone and while there, decided to stop by the Christmas isle one last time to see if there were any sales. Not surprised, the whole isle had already been wiped clean pretty much, including the stuffed animals — all but one that is. Sitting on the row, staring me dead in the eye, was the pink unicorn Kinsley had been eyeing, it sat alone, minus a couple smaller animals. It stared at me, I stared back.
And then I remembered something. I remembered the 10 stuffed horses I had as a child and how much I adored them. So I grabbed that big ol’ $10 unicorn, threw it in the cart and took it home with me.
I’m not going to lie, once I got it home, I was so giddy about giving it to her. “She’s going to be so thrilled when she sees it sitting in front of the tree on Christmas morning!” I couldn’t wait to see her face.
I had hid it on top of the changing table in Audrey’s room and threw a blanket over it. Kinsley never messed in there so it was safe — So I thought. On Christmas Eve afternoon, I asked Kinsley to go grab me a diaper out of Audrey’s room, not even thinking. As soon as she got back there, I remembered, but I thought, “surely it’ll be fine.” No quicker than I had the thought, I heard, “OH MY GOODNESS! MOM LOOK WHAT I FOUND!”
As I heard footsteps running down the hall, I already knew what she would be holding. “LOOK! It’s the pink unicorn! Oh can I keep it mom, please?!” I explained to her it was supposed to be a Christmas gift, but since she already found it, she could have it early. I’m not going to lie, I was pretty bummed because the vision I had in my head of her running into the living room on Christmas morning, surprised, was a moment I was looking forward to, but that’s just the selfish, mom part of me. She was still absolutely thrilled, even if it didn’t happen how I wanted it to. And might I add, it was the best $10 stuffed animal I’ve ever bought! She has carried that thing with her everywhere since that afternoon. Still not sure to call this a mom win or a mom fail, but I’m leaning towards win.
