Flumpy

There are three Flumpies. There is Flumpy Original, New Flumpy and Brown Flumpy. Flumpy Original was a gift to my first daughter A, when she was born. He is a blue elephant, with long gangly legs, a small soft body, an unfeasibly large trunk and two lovely white tusks. When A first held Flumpy, she put her thumb in her mouth, fiddled with his flicky tusks and slowly closed her eyes, Flumpy was her first best friend.

We had an emergency thought that most first time parents go through, what if we lost Flumpy, we need some replacements. The problem was that Flumpy came from Thailand. By fortune, the parents-in-law were visiting the country for a holiday soon enough so they had strict instructions to bring a replica home. Hence New Flumpy. Brown Flumpy arrived by post, an arduous journey no doubt, a well travelled elephant - he got delivered to the wrong address and went on the aeroplane all the way back to Thailand, only to be re-sent to our current address. Despite his colour he was welcomed with little chubby, open arms. So much so, his eye fell off and needed replacing with a rather bulbous one. Slowly all their tusks disintegrated, their bodies became soft and floppy with a lack of stuffing and their fluffy coats became worn and loved.

"Which Flumpy is coming to India?" I ask A, starting to think about packing and preparation.

"Well, it depends on who's turn it is to sleep with me on that day," explained A. "I take it in turns sleeping with them because it is only fair, they all want to be in my bed. And if I love one more than the other they will get sad and the one I love the most will get worn out."

I like your thinking A.