A New Life for Lumpy

Lumpy is Allie's favorite stuffed animal.  It always has been.  I remember putting it in her crib when her Aunt Dixie gave it to her for Christmas.  She was 5 months old and Lumpy was bigger than her.  If I would have known how much she would love the thing, I would have taken a picture of her with it that first day.  As it is, Lumpy is now 9 years old and has been all over the State of Utah, to elementary school, to Wyoming, Colorado, several places in the neighborhood, and through the washing machine many times as well.  I try to make stuffed animals be "inside toys" and I've never been too happy about her dragging this one around everywhere, but she loves it so much that it has just happened.  Over the years, Lumpy has been hugged so many times that she became a floppy elephant with a torn ear and a dethatched tusk.  A few weeks ago, she and Jake were messing around with Lumpy and there was an accident.  Lumpy suffered a huge gash near her spine.  Allie fell apart.  Many tears were shed.  I did my best to calm her down and we started calling neighbors that might be able to fix Lumpy.  I knew I couldn't do a blind stitch, but knew of others who could.  We couldn't get ahold of anyone.  Allie wanted it fixed quickly and told me she didn't mind if Lumpy ended up with a scar down her back.  So we set to work.  I told Allie that it wasn't all that big of a deal because the injury meant that we could fill Lumpy back up with fresh batting.  We stitched up the big gash in back and fixed her torn ear, tail, and tusk.  Next thing you know, Lumpy is good as new.  Allie's frown was turned upside down.  :)