o chickie, chickie! wherefore art thou, chickie?

it's hard to believe chickie's been gone 10 months now. i received chickie at my baby shower for timmy. in june of last year, timmy and i spent some time in chicago visiting brand-new baby arie (tim had to work, so it was just mommy & timmy). of course timmy took chickie, his very best friend in all the world. chickie and he had not spent one day or night (or half-hour) apart since timmy was old enough to express his preference for him.

on our last full day in chicago, michelle & baby arie and timmy, chickie and i went to the lincoln park zoo. chickie did not make it home. i explained to timmy that night that chickie'd been left at the lincoln park zoo and maybe another boy who didn't have any chickie took him home to love him. timmy was sad. he has never stopped talking about chickie. he frequently tells strangers that chickie is at the zoo in chicago (until last month, he said "sugar-cago").

i began the hunt for chickie and/or a replacement even b/f we left chicago. if i had to estimate, i'd say i've probably spent 70 hours looking so far. about a month after we returned home, i found a plush chick from a wildlife fundraising thing - the "fur" was similar and it was a chick, but it looked nothing like chickie. when it arrived in the mail, i gave it to timmy and told him the mailman brought a new chickie for timmy to love and hug. he was mildly taken aback. he said, "this isn't chickie. this chickie has big huge eyeballs." it took only moments for timmy to love "new chickie" but he is still patiently awaiting the day the mailman will bring "old chickie" home.

during a recent ebay search, i came across a very similar chickie. so similar, in fact, my heart almost stopped. until i realized the chickie on ebay is teeny . . . and hollow (with a plastic egg inside). but it's the same maker (hallmark / heartline) and the little bow is similar, the head and wing and eye shapes are the same. timmy loves his "tiny little baby chickie" but when he called grammy to tell her about it, he said, "and my old chickie will come home from the lincoln log zoo."

it gives me hope that we'll find another original chickie soon, and timmy will be able to tell people old chickie came home from "lincoln log zoo."