Dewdrops In The Garden

Our Mission: Recover Ernie

Since we had some beautiful weather on Mother’s Day, I decided to take my daughter for a run in the morning while Dave hung back to look after Ocean. Because we had festivities to attend later in the afternoon, my plan was to do a quick 6 miles while pushing Mar in the jogging stroller. As has been the case lately, Marley wanted to bring her little Sesame Street figures to accompany her for the ride.

As I reached the 5th mile, Marley awakened from her nap yelling, “Ernie, Ernie!” I stopped for a moment and checked her stroller. Ernie was gone, which meant Marley must have dropped him along the way. Panic ensued. “We have to go back and rescue Ernie!” I thought. So, rather than exit the trail to go back home, I instead turned around and kept running, re-tracing my steps in hopes we wouldn’t be too late to save Ernie.

At mile 7, still no sign of the little guy. Shortly thereafter, Mar starts yelling, “Grover, Grover!” “You dropped Grover too?” I asked. Once again I found myself doing an about face, intent on protecting Grover from the same fate as Ernie. Luckily, we found Grover without going too far, so one more time I found myself reversing direction to continue our pursuit of Ernie (imagine what invisible onlookers must have thought while watching this crazy woman and her stroller going back and forth).

No Ernie was to be found as I finished re-tracing my steps, so I abandoned all hope. I arrived at home 8.2 miles later and asked Dave if he had seen Ernie. “Yes, he’s here at home,” he replied. “I took him from Mar before you left, because I was afraid she would drop him if she had too many to hold onto.”

You don’t say.