Burn Victim

I wrote in this post earlier in the summer about Jacob's favorite stuffed animal, Lion. They are inseparable. If anything, Jacob has become more attached to Lion since I wrote that post. He now likes to take Lion on walks with us in the stroller, as well as on car rides whenever we go somewhere. Lion is his constant companion. He sleeps with Lion every night, and plays with Lion every day. One of his favorite games to play is "Go Lion", where he throws Lion as high in the air as he can while yelling "go Lion!" and then he has to find where Lion landed.

He was playing just this game on Saturday morning when Lion landed in the lamp in the boys' bedroom. Lion landed directly on top of the hot lightbulb. It took me a few minutes to notice, and by the time I did, Lion was stuck to it. I had to rip him off of the hot bulb, only to find that Lion's "fur" had melted and in its place were three holes, exposing his stuffing.

I was devastated. I know that Lion is irreplaceable - literally - he isn't sold anymore. So I had prepared myself on how to deal with a situation where Lion might get dirty, or torn, or even thrown in the toilet. But I had not prepared myself for the event where Lion would become a burn victim.

I enlisted the help of my mom, and she  performed emergency "surgery" on Lion's damaged backside. The whole time Jacob kept coming over to me, tugging on my arm and saying, "Lion? Lion?" I knew he was wondering where his little blue friend was, and it broke my heart.

Once my mom finished the stitching, the big moment came when they were reunited. I was so worried Jacob wouldn't accept Lion with his new "band aid", but he barely even noticed; he was just happy to have his Lion back. 

Lion is holding up well, and things seem to be back to normal for the time being. Thank goodness for needle and thread! 

Oh, and thank goodness the house didn't burn down.