Tee-toe!

Libby loves, loves, loves turtles. Whenever she sees one on TV (mostly Baby Einstein) or in books, she points and yells "tee-toe, tee-to, tee-to!". Then, when the turtle moves off-screen, she cries. Pitiful. I had some tip money burning a hole in my wallet, so I decided to get Libby her very own "tee-to". The problem is, no one sells plush turtles. You can get bears, elephants, frogs, dogs, horses, just about every animal there is, but no turtles. I called a few stores, we visited a few, and over and over again, we were disappointed in our quest for turtles.

Yesterday, amidst the rain and the wind and the plummeting temperatures, we decided to run multiple errands. One of the grocery stores we went to only offered a few specific sale items that interested us, so while John went in to get them, Libby and I trekked through the rain to the Hallmark store on the off-chance that they carried plush turtles. I walked in, croaked my request to the saleslady (oh yeah, Libby and I both have bronchitis and are on anti-biotics) and she said "turtles? We have turtles". Yay! She led us straight to the turtles, took one off the shelf, and handed it to Libby. Libby yelled "tee-toe!" and ran around to every person in the store, showing them her new friend. I pulled a few different animals off the shelves (I think Hallmark carries the most adorable stuffed animals) and held them up next to the turtle as a comparison, one at a time. Each time, Libby took the elephant, pig, cow, bear, dog, whatever, out of my hand, put it back on the shelf, grabbed the turtle, yelled "tee-toe!" and ran away. So I bought it.

We walked back to the grocery store to meet John, and when we walked up to him, he said "I think you're smiling bigger than Libby is". Since then, the "tee-toe" is rarely out of her sight, and when she can't remember where she last left it, she puts her hands up in the air and says "uh-oh, tee-toe!"
The best $15 I've spent in a while.