Something serious going on

Husband was watching tv while he was working out this morn. He works out every morn in front of the tv. I was sitting in my dance studio/computer room/study and he said, "Hey, come in here. You've got to see this." I thought it was something new and awful happening in New Zealand or Greece or the Middle East or Wisconsin. But my husband went to our son's bedroom door, stood by and said, "Look in there. What do you notice? No Rainbow." Hmmm, that's strange I thought. Because Rainbow is usually sitting on the bed.

We homeschool, but on Wednesdays son attends a full day of school at the local private school. My husband said he noticed Rainbow wasn't there beside our son when he woke him up to get ready for school. Rainbow, named for his bright yellow, blue, and pink colors, is the stuffed toy dog our son has slept with every night since he was six years old. He loves Rainbow! We all love Rainbow. We all remember how he won Rainbow at the Indio Date Festival when he was six years old. Husband didn't mention Rainbow's absence out loud to our son.

But where was Rainbow?

We waited till he was gone to school. We stood the the bedroom door peering in, both of us know we were facing more than just a stuffed dog gone missing. Then we stepped in together.

First I thought maybe Rainbow fell under the bed and somehow, in the bizarro world, got left down there. Highly unlikely because our son is a major neatnik (an inherited trait not from me) and the room is always spotless. Everything in its place. I have never in the history of the world, had to tell this child to clean his room But you never know. Hope against hope, maybe he had an off day or something. But Rainbow wasn't there. So I looked in the blankets. Rainbow is older now and skinnier than when he was younger, so he could possibly be caught in a big fold, an unseen fold, in the blankets. I pulled up the sheet, the blanket, and the comforter and puffed them all up together with air. Then they all laid back down perfectly flat. Nope, Rainbow wasn't there. We looked all around on the floor.

There was one last place to look. The clothes closet. Husband went and got the flashlight. I opened the door. I looked in up and down, in all four corners and then. There, he was. On a shelf, way up high, you'd need a chair to reach it, Rainbow sat. All alone in the dark. Kind of crumpled. Sitting on top of a plastic Rubbermaid tub full of all sorts of miscellaneous items now rarely accessed. My heart dropped and I felt bad. My husband said, "Ohhhh noooooo."

He's is growing up. He'll be 14 in May. I'm so not ready. Come to think of it, for the last few days he hasn't given me a kiss goodnight. I knew it was approaching. It had to. We have an older son who's 32 so we know the drill. It has to happen, right? Growing up is inevitable. It's the ultimate goal of parenting, is it not. Sigh. But I'm going to miss the baby, the tot, the second grader and the little boy. I'm going to miss the big boy. He's growing into a young man now. And I will miss Rainbow so very much.