Dudley the Duck. Dudley the Darn, Darn Duck.
When the preschool teacher first sent out the monthly newsletter notifying us that Dudley would be making his rounds to the home of each student in the class for a couple nights at a time, I thought, “How cute.” Silly, ignorant first-time mom of a preschooler. Little did I know that the stuffed yellow ball of fluff was otherwise known as the Killer of Weekends.
He looked innocent enough in his sweet little basket, cozied up to the class journal in which each family was to document their visit with him and then return with him to the next class session. My son was giddy to have his turn with Dudley, and I fed his enthusiasm, excitedly talking with him the whole way home about all the fun things he could do with the duck. Then we got home and I opened the journal.
Holy crap.
There were no cute little hand-written notes from the other families. There were no cute pictures his classmates had scribbled. Oh no. This was entirely on a different level. Game on.
I want to blame my friend who took Dudley home first for setting the bar so high. I like her tremendously, but she is one of those scary, scary ladies that has her life together. Together enough that on a Tuesday night she took a barrage of adorable pictures of her own son playing with Dudley, then flawlessly formatted them into a collage and had the whole thing printed out and transferred into the journal by Thursday morning preschool. I know. I told you she was scary. xo, friend–I love you so much anyway.
But it wasn’t really her fault. She is just really smart and understood the requirements of hosting Dudley. This was a duck who needed to be entertained and documented–entertained and documented well.
The journal pages were filled with glossy photos of Dudley doing everything from riding tractors to washing dishes. Dudley snuggled in pajamas and went to the movies. I was lamenting to my chiropractor about the duck and he said we should have brought Dudley in with us to my appointment to snag a photo of him being adjusted. This would not have been out of line.
You had a 50/50 shot of having your entire weekend being blown to crap duck-sitting if you were given Dudley on a Thursday, or you could be sent into absolute panic mode if he came to you on Tuesday, giving you only two measly days to take and print pics. We got the latter. I still have pictures to print from Halloween. This was not a hopeful situation.
Paging through the journal, I started to hyperventilate a bit. Then I cried. Then I called my husband at work and told him he would have to take the next day off to handle this. He did not take off work.
We tried to be cute and take creative pictures, but let’s just be honest–the fun creative genes just took a pass on my family. This was incredibly stressful. And fear-wrought. The entire time Dudley was hanging out with us, I worried about losing him. Or my teething daughter chewing his foot off. Another mom confessed me that they actually did lose him when it was her turn, and I shared a grave look with her, knowing how severe that situation must have been. This was serious stuff, people.
That zany, zany duck
But we survived. We slapped some stuff together, made a mad midnight dash to the photo shop and toasted our heroics with a glass of wine. Thursday morning, that journal was turned in. I was feeling good. Oh yeah, let the next family have their shot at this hellacious initiation.
Then I realized the next person in line was another good friend from the class. I instantly felt sad for her, knowing what her weekend would hold. As I passed on the basket, I just looked mournfully into her eyes and said, “I’m sorry.” She said, “I know.” There were no further words at a time like this.
Dudley the Duck. Dudley the Weekend-Killer. Dudley the stuffed creature whom my son loved. Whom my daughter loved. And whom they had an absolute blast playing with and cried over when he had to leave. It’s okay, kiddos. Give it two years until my daughter hits preschool and Dudley will be back. And there will be smiles, laughs, dress-up parties and more midnight dashes to get gorgeous duck collages printed.
We love you, Dudley. Come back anytime.
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