Goodbye, dear friend

I know this day was coming, but it never easy saying goodbye to a dear friend.

Since darling daughter is now pulling herself up (yikes!) in her crib it is time to say goodbye to the Fisher Price rainforest mobile that has been whirling and twirling above my little darling's head for about the last seven months. When my mother bought it for us last fall, I scoffed. Who needs a mobile? I wondered in my sleep deprived haze. What a waste of money. I scoffed even harder when I discovered it came with a remote control. A remote control?!? That must be for lazy parents, I laughed to myself. I vowed not to use the remote control.

Well, didn't darling daughter fall in love the darn thing. And the rule that every new parent learns quickly is that you love what your little one loves, no matter what it is. And if that is a bright green mobile with a monkey, bird, lizard and butterfly that twirls to classical music while big green plastic leaves flap up and down, then you better believe I fell in love with that mobile, too.

The thing was a GODSEND! If I can remember correctly, darling daughter didn't sleep through the night until we assembled the mobile and started putting in her crib on a full time basis. Yes, the music got annoying, but if it kept her happy, I was happy. When we travelled halfway across the country several months ago to visit the in-laws, the mobile was stowed away in our luggage. God help the airline baggage staff if they had lost our luggage.

As for the remote control, well, I love the remote control. I lost count of the number of times I rummaged through our linen closet in a sleep induced haze to press the big blue button on the remote control to get the mobile going again when the music stopped. Very handy in starting the damn thing without your child laying eyes on you.

We have used this mobile for four months more than we should have. It states on the music box that you can only use it up until a child is five months old. Luckily for us, darling daughter doesn't like to sit up so we never saw a need to get rid of it, until now. But tonight dear husband caught her using the music box as leverage to get her into the standing position. So now we have to put it away, for now. We will store it away for the next baby. So dear friend, thank you for lulling my darling daughter to bed for nearly a year. I shouldn't scoffed at you when you first arrived. I do apologize. Thank you for your loyal and dedicated service. You will be missed.