lost. and found. again.

we went to the downtown library for story time.  it rocks.  it's been a while since we've gone, and isaac especially liked it yesterday.  while he enjoyed the books and the puppets, i tried to wrangle ada away from the strangers sitting beside us who were feeding their kids pretzels and other yummy snacks.  she was scavenging, maybe in an effort to make new friends but probably in an effort to find a treat.  i really love this about ada.  she's never met a stranger, and she really loves to share.  she's our curious little critter.

at the end of story time, isaac went up to the front with the rest of the kids to sit on the stage and sing "what a wonderful world" in sign language.  ada and i went with him at his request.  it was his first time to express interest in being a part of this tradition at the library, and i was really proud of him.  afterwards we ran into some friends and talked to them while we picked out a stack of 17 new books to read this week, most of which are actually good!

monkey blank came with us, as is common on many of our adventures.  he tags along happily, and all is well until we realize we have no clue where he is.  when we got home with our hands very full of books, i discovered he was gone.  i always feel like we're running out of grace when it comes to monkey blank.  he's been lost so many places--a college campus, a toy store, and an outdoor wedding reception at dark just to name a few.  i called the library repeatedly during nap time, hoping to get lucky and discover monkey blank had wandered up to the information desk.  i didn't get an answer.  i started thinking about how we might replace monkey blank, though i know better.  ruru and i tried that once when elephant blank "went to town."  we found another elephant blank at a store that looked just like isaac's elephant blank and we brought him home, excited to tell isaac the good news.  after taking a quick look at the new elephant blank, he threw the blanket across the room and said, "this is NOT elephant blank.  give this to ada."  he had nothing to do with new elephant blank for at least three days, during which time jeremy gave the new elephant blank a cool voice and a stellar personality.  now the blank imposter is allowed to be part of isaac's life, but is called new elephant blank.  he still insists that old elephant blank went to town.

after naps we drove back the the library and retraced our steps.  because we were lucky enough, we found monkey blank mixed in with the puppets close to where we'd been playing with our friend ayden earlier.  isaac tends to flap his arms when he gets excited.  monkey blank's return definitely got an arm flapping.  i can't believe he's home safe.  again.  hooray.