In The Night

There is a sound that I dread. 

It startles me when I am downstairs and I hear it upstairs.

When I hear it in my living room or my office it means work for me.

When I hear it at 1:30 in the morning, like I did last night, it is down right frightening!

It is the sound of Haley dumping all of the toys out of her purse.

At 1:30 a.m.

After I got over the initial shock I dragged myself out of bed and opened my bedroom door.  There she was rifling through the contents of her purse. 

"Haley, what are you doing?" I whispered.

"Pumba."

Now I was sleepy and a little disoriented so my mind was not swift.

"Is that your hyena?" I asked, knowing full well that it wasn't, but I couldn't remember what it was. 

I knew it wasn't the warthog from The Lion King.  I knew that she had chosen that name for a different kind of animal.  And I knew at the time she named it that it was probably not a good idea to let her use that name.  Not because it would confuse her, but for this very reason. 

That it would confuse me. 

That at some point I would be asked to find said animal (in the middle of the night) and I would not remember which animal it was because the name attached to it brought up memories of another animal which it was not.

She said "yeah," even though that was clearly not the animal she was looking for. 

We both knew that.  We were both tired though.  And it was dark. 

I tried in vain to help her shuffle through the toys looking for an animal that neither one of us could see and that only one of us really knew that we were looking for.

I smelled something.

"Haley, do you need your pants changed?"

"Yeah."

"OK, let's go do that."

She got up and I followed her in to the bathroom.

Afterward I gently persuaded her to go back to bed.  I didn't say that we would look for Pumba in the morning, but it was implied.

About an hour later (after I heard her shuffling around the house) she came in to my room.  I got up and put her back in bed again.  There was no mention of Pumba this time.

In the morning it started, after she had breakfast and got dressed, thankfully.  I looked around the house, but I didn't find it. 

I do remember now that it is a lion cub.  The one she got at the zoo the last time we went.  I spent a good hour looking for it this morning after she went to school, but so far no luck.

The bummer is that about a week ago I did a thorough cleaning of her room and I bagged up a bunch of toys that she never really plays with and I donated them.  I am pretty sure that Pumba was not amongst those toys, but the thing is that I organized everything in her room.  I don't remember seeing it, but if I did I would have put it with the other plastic animals and it is not there.

So like her Big Sis said, it is probably in a weird place that she put it, but she doesn't remember. 

Her Big Sis also said that she imagines her mind is like a log book where she catalogs all of her toys, where she played with them last and where she left them.  And when someone moves them (like I did when I cleaned) her log book gets all messed up.

So I messed up her log book.  And Pumba is missing. 

And I have about four hours to find her.

The Other Shoe

Shortly after I posted the last blog post Haley's Big Sis decided to go over to her friends house.  Shortly after that Haley seemed agitated.  She wanted to know where her sister had gone.  I told her and then she got upset.

I asked her if she missed her sister and she said "Yeah."  Then she said "Haley. Day. ent."  She said it a few more times.  I finally clued in.  She was saying "Haley's Birthday Present."  I asked her which present she was referring to.  She repeated herself.  I repeated myself.  Then she said "One. Two. Three." holding up finger for each number. I said "Do you mean all of them?" and she said "Yeah."  I said "Are you missing your birthday presents?" and she said "Yeah." and started crying. 

It was then that I realized what was in those purses.

Haley and I decided to go shopping.

We went to Target and found a new Polly Pocket to replace the seven or eight Polly Pockets that were in those purses, including the one that her Big Sis had given her for her birthday.  We also found a new Lightning McQueen to replace the two that were in those purses.  We looked for a fawn to replace Raina the Schleich fawn that was in those purses, but we didn't find one.

We then went to the Feed Mill where we found another deer (not the same one she is missing) a new draft horse, two baby horses and a cow that has horns like Heather.

I know I can't replace everything that she lost, but I feel better.  She seems to really like her new toys and she isn't crying anymore.

Wow. Really?

This is one of those times that the title of this blog is so appropriate.  My daughter amazes me...

Sunday morning we woke up and had breakfast and got dressed and went out to look at the Yukon.  As we walked toward it this is what I said:

"Haley, something bad happened last night.  Someone broke the window out of the Yukon."

We walked up to the Yukon and I put my hand through the window.  I showed her the glass all over the seat and the floor and the bits that were still hanging on to the side of the opening.

"Someone wanted your purses.  They broke the window and they took them.  See.  Your purses are gone."

She looked in the window and then she turned to me and said.

"Gone."

"Yes, honey your purses are gone."


"Heather."


"Do you want to go say 'Good Morning' to Heather?"


"Yeah."

That was it. 

Then we went up the hill and visited the cow that lives behind Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Haley's Dad and her Grandpa made a makeshift window out of cardboard and duct tape and cleaned all of the glass out of the Yukon and we drove it home.  This morning someone came to the house and fixed the window.

Haley did ask me if she could take three toys from the box of toys that Grandma and Grandpa have for her at their house home with us.  I told her to ask her Grandma and she did.  Grandma said she could bring them home.  We now have a Mickey Mouse, a Minnie Mouse and a Woody the Woodpecker that we didn't have before.  She has played with them constantly ever since.

This morning I noticed that Haley was going through her toys in her room.  She hasn't said anything more about the toys that are gone.  I don't know if she will.  I kind of feel like I am waiting for the other shoe to drop, but so far it hasn't affected her.  She has been really big about it.

Will wonders never cease?

I am so sad

The blog I wanted to write is going to come in a couple of days.  This is the blog I have to write.

We made the trip to Grandma and Grandpa's house not only to see them, but also to go to a Mariner's game.  We left Haley with Grandma and Grandpa and Haley's Dad and I and her Big Sis drove to Bremerton and took the ferry to Seattle to watch the game.  We had a great time.  Then we got back to the Yukon to find the window broken.  My husband started to say that at least there wasn't anything valuable in the Yukon when Haley's Big Sis realized that Haley's purses were gone.

I usually make sure there is nothing of value visible in our vehicles when I leave them parked.  It is one of the things that my Dad taught me.  It is something that I take very seriously.  I even made sure there was nothing around the front seat where I was sitting before I got out of the Yukon, but I didn't think about Haley's purses.

We usually leave Haley's toys in the Yukon when we go to G and G's house because they have a box of toys that she plays with while she is here.  We generally don't want her to mix her toys up so we usually don't bring them into their house.  We made an exception this time because Haley really wanted her horses to come in with her.  Thank God we did.

I don't know yet what I am going to tell her when she realizes that her purses are gone.  I don't even know what was in her purses because she has had them packed for TWELVE DAYS.  I usually have some idea of what she has packed, but this time I don't.  My husband thinks we should just wait and see if she misses them.  Yeah, right.  She will miss them.  She knows what she brought.  I am dreading this. 

We have bigger problems right now.  There is no glass in the back window.  We don't know how soon we will be able to get the window replaced.  The Yukon is full of broken glass.  We don't know when we will be able to go home.

All I can think of right now is what will happen when my daughter realizes that all of her favorite, special toys are gone.

Haley's Purse

Time is a difficult concept for Haley. She doesn’t know how to tell time. She doesn’t really get the concept, I guess. For example she knows in general that if it is dark it is night, but I can’t tell her that something will happen in an hour or that we will do something at 2:00 PM. She is learning the calendar in school. She can recite the days of the week. Sometimes she can even point at the right day on the calendar, but time is tough.

Haley doesn’t really have any patience. If she wants something she wants it now - not in a minute - not later, now. When she asks for some Kool-aid she seems to really expect it to just appear in her hand. When I say “just a moment” that doesn’t cut it. When I say “I am still putting in your video” or “I will get your Kool-aid for you after I get you the snack you just asked for.”, that is also not acceptable.

It is for that reason that we have learned not to give her too much information about upcoming plans. I emphasize we have learned because that is what a lot of lessons boil down to in our house. Haley learns of course, but generally our lives have been conformed to Haley. We react. We adapt. We learn.

Sometimes it is just easier that way.

Don’t assume that we are kowtowing to our daughter’s every whim that is not what I mean. This is difficult to explain. Haley has limits. When one of Haley’s limits is reached something has to give. She has what we have come to call a MELTDOWN. It begins as a sound that I find difficult to type; it is kind of a grunt/moan/wail. Then she states her request again. She will repeat her request at an ever increasing volume. She will scream at decibels and octaves that will do damage. She will not stop. Well, it is difficult to get her to stop. That may be a topic for another day. I try to avoid the MELTDOWN.

So if we have plans to go somewhere we wait until we are nearly ready ourselves before we tell her that we are going. If we don’t, well, she wants to go right now. Her desire to go is not a bad thing however; sometimes it can be really fun. It has become somewhat of a game in our house. Let’s see how long it takes Haley to realize we are going somewhere. Let’s see if Haley can guess where we are going. And my personal favorite is when Big Sister says “Can I tell Haley we are going now?” The reaction is usually quite entertaining.

Big Sis likes to tell Haley when we are going to the Zoo or G & G’s house because Haley “lights up” and says “Yeah!” and starts packing her purse.

Haley’s purse was born out of necessity. We learned early on that when we left our house with Haley we needed to have something with us that would keep her entertained. We learned that lesson at a restaurant; it was not a pretty scene. We started out carrying toys with us, usually in my purse. We would pull them out to distract her when the waiting got bad. Haley liked to pull things out of my purse. She liked my purse. So I gave it to her.

She has many purses now. Some were given to her as gifts. She does rotate them time and again, but she still likes that purse I gave her. It is mesh so she can see what she has. She packs it herself now with matchbox cars, small plastic animals, and little dolls and their clothes, shoes and accessories and of course her tiny train engines. That purse can get very heavy and sometimes we have to help her pare down a bit.

THE Purse I gave her

I used to pack her purse. Then one day my husband told her we were going somewhere and suggested that she find her purse and put some toys in it. Then later when we told her we were going somewhere she would head up to her room and start packing a purse on her own.

Not too long ago I was heading to the laundry room and there was her purse packed and waiting by the door to the garage. It took some investigating on my part, but what I realized was that she had seen her father’s preparations for a trip he was going on and had made the assumption that she too would be going, so she had packed and put the purse by the door so she would be ready when the time came.

I can see now that each of those steps I just mentioned is a milestone. Haley learns. It does very little good to tell her that we are going somewhere at 2:00 PM, but she has learned that if those silly parents of hers are running around the house packing clothing into suitcases and food into boxes it must be time to pack her purse.