...to pretend to look and look some more

...for the swimming girl.

This set is a gift that Audrey received for her birthday last year and it was a favorite.

A year ago.

For obvious reasons it was an outside toy.

It has been hiding in the garage since the end of last summer.

Audrey found this set again this afternoon while she was playing outside and she was ready to recreate the joy she remembered from last summer.  She just needed to find the doll that came with the set.

You see Audrey brought the doll in the house 'to keep it warm'.  And...the doll has now apparently gotten lost in the toy room.

(Do you see where this story is going?)

I assure you that Audrey and I looked and looked for this particular doll this afternoon.  The one with the swimsuit.  The only tiny doll ever meant to do flips down toward the slide.  The only doll ever made to place her tiny feet into the diving board so that she can dive in the pool.

We couldn't find her.

I tried to offer Audrey several different options.

I tried taking clothes off of the Princess girls to give them 'swimsuits', I tried to substitute the Lalaloopsy ones, and finally I even tried the scary fairy girl.

Nope.  Nope.  Nope.

Not one of them was the particular girl she was looking for. 

Audrey assures me she is quite certain of the exact location that she put the said swimsuit doll.

Between you and I, I am equally certain this doll met her fate a few weeks ago.  (It's a good thing Abbey wasn't here to point fingers.  She surely would have thrown me under the bus).

I somehow convinced Audrey these dolls could be a perfect substitution.  We even found a few pets for the little ladies that could swim with their friends.  

Sigh.

After we got the whole set ready, we lost him.

Clearly she was quite upset.

But alas, the starts were aligned...

Can you see how small this creature-that-I-need-to-keep-track-of is?

...and we found the little bugger.

Phew.