Requiem for an old friend, gone too soon (ALTERNATE TITLE: A fool and her money are soon parted)

I have love, love, loved our video monitor since Day One.

As unnecessary and indulgent as I've always recognized this $100 piece of surveillance equipment to be, there's been a new reason to adore it with each developmental stage. When my kids were infants, I could glance at the monitor and confirm that they hadn't accidentally face planted into a big fat pocket of crib bumper that threatened to asphyxiate them. When they hit the "I can roll over, but I can't get back" stage and then the "I can stand up but I have no idea what to do next" stage, a quick peek at the monitor would tell me whether I needed to mount a rescue operation or could just simply the child whimper until he or she fell back asleep. When my kids got older, the monitor told me who was playing quietly in bed, who was trying to escape and who had already left the nest.

Beyond the practical, the video monitor has also given me ample opportunity to do that "isn't my sleeping child sweet?" gazing thing without risking waking said child with my presence in the room (it's amazing how fast the "sweet" part disappears when a sleeping child is awakened). Friends and family love to watch it as well, especially now that Evan has figured out how it works and identified the once place in his crib where he can lie sight unseen. "Oh my God, Evan's not in his crib," someone always exclaims while those of us in the know sit and laugh.

Alas, the screen on our monitor abruptly went dark a few months ago. I was heartbroken, knowing that my kids were simply too old to justify purchasing a new one, but a friend who owned a monitor that she was no longer using graciously loaned me hers. And today, it died, too. (If Allison ever comes along, I promise to buy you a new one, Chichimama!)

I suspect that someone is trying to tell me something about the suitability of spying on a 2 year old. It was probably time to retire the old girl and move on to a cheap audio monitor anyway. Hell, it's probably even time to move the audio monitor out of Julia's room; listening in on our 4 year old is no doubt an invasion of privacy as well. But I was counting on the video monitor to aid in Evan's transition to his Big Boy Bed! I had big plans to use it in our basement playroom after it outgrew its bedroom usefulness! I'm not ready to say goodbye just yet! How dare my favorite piece of child care equipment betray me like this?

Someone please talk me out of buying a new one.