Raffi

*UPDATE:  For those here from Facebook, this is an old update from the first time we lost Raffi.  He was found after this, but he has lost him again and this time has not been found.  He has a replacement (the one from the picture in this update), this story is the reason we bought the replacement years ago.  It is just still not the same, as he never loved it like the original.  Thank you for helping by sharing posts and caring about this story!

Those of you who have followed this blog for a while know about Raffi, Andrew's nighttime blankie giraffe that he sleeps with every night.  Raffi has been on many adventures with our family, and I figured his latest one is worth documenting.  It seemed fitting for Raffi to have a post dedicated only to himself, since he has basically been a member of the family since day one.

 Raffi goes everywhere Andrew goes...to day care, to grandma's house, on family vacations...you name it.  It has always been a concern of ours, that if we were to ever lose Raffi, Andrew would never sleep again!  Ha!  There have only been a handful of nights in his whole life that Raffi hasn't had his special place next to Andrew in bed.

One day I came in when he was napping in his crib and found Raffi on his head!  I just laughed and laughed.

 Raffi has been left in hotel rooms, and misplaced many times.  Many nights we have scrambled, searching the house for Raffi at bedtime when we are determined the bedtime routine has to go smoothly.

It just doesn't go smoothly without Raffi.

When he was a baby he would purposely throw Raffi on the floor and then cry for him.  His sneaky little way to get mommy back in his room at nap time!  Ha!
Raffi has followed Andrew from his crib, to toddler bed, to big boy bed.

 This was his first night in his toddler bed, Raffi in a tight grip.

One of many nights spent at Ga Ga's house.  One night we sent him to my mom's overnight and forgot to send Raffi.  My mom could not get him to sleep for anything.  We don't make that mistake anymore!

We have said many times, while on the search for Raffi, that he needs to stay in Andrew's bed, so we never lose him!  But he always ends up somewhere else.  Andrew carries him out of bed in the mornings and brings him to cuddle, wherever that may be.

Many times we find him twisted around the sheets in our bed after Andrew has snuck into our bed in the middle of the night been in our room (for something other than sleeping, because we certainly wouldn't let him sleep in bed with us.  That would just create a hard habit to break.  Ahem.)

Raffi has joined us on many car trips...

 And he has accompanied us on countless trips to the hospital for Andrew's surgeries and procedures...

And has gone to "school" with him almost every day.

This is one of my favorite pictures of him heading to school during his first week last year.

 Sometimes Andrew has fun being silly with Raffi...

They are just best buds!

I have tried multiple times to wash Raffi (because you can imagine how dirty he gets!).  You might notice from the first picture how nice and clean he was.  He's starting to look pretty beat up.  Andrew gets kinda mad when it is Raffi's "bath time" and we watch him through the window of the washing machine.  He's all matted and just not fixable anymore.

Andrew could care less.

So, I have looked everywhere for a replacement Raffi.  You know, just in case.  We've had too many close calls.  It is an old Carters brand and they don't make the exact same one anymore.  They have one similar, but Andrew knows it's not the real Raffi and calls it "Baby Raffi."

Then we found him a Mickey Mouse blankie, thinking we could take it to Florida instead of risking losing Raffi in another state.

He just calls it "Mickey Raffi"and plays with it from time to time.  He definitely knows the difference.

The bottom line is, there is just no replacement for the real Raffi.

Andrew was having none of it.

Raffi went to Florida.

And that is where his latest adventure begins...

He almost didn't make it back.  Or at least we thought.

Somewhere between checking out of our Disney hotel on day 3 and checking in to my friend's house, Raffi was misplaced.  Again.

In the three days Raffi went missing, we went searching.  I called the hotel multiple times and looked through all our luggage.  So we looked online and much to our surprise (because we had looked plenty of times before), there was the exact.same.Raffi.  On Ebay.  And it only cost $9 bucks.  Totally worth it.  Look how squeaky clean it is!  I'd have it shipped to our house and tell Andrew they found him at the hotel and sent him in the mail.  And gave him a bath.

Well, shortly after I ordered it, the real Raffi was found and made it home with us.  Somehow in the mad dash to get checked out of the hotel I must have stuffed him in a side pocket of my suitcase.

A few days after we got home, replacement Raffi arrived.

I was determined not to let Andrew see them both together.  You know, because then he'd know there were two of them.  And then my plan wouldn't work.

My plan was brilliant.  

Keep replacement Raffi somewhere hidden, so if we ever lost Raffi or forgot him somewhere, we'd have back up.

I swear this kid cannot be fooled.  He saw replacement Raffi in the laundry basket after I washed it, picked it up and hugged it.  I thought, oh boy, this is it.  Will he notice?  Right away he gave it a name...

"Mama Raffi."

How do these kids know this stuff?

I guess there's no mistaking true love...

Best

Buds

Forever!