dearly departed

i'd like to take a moment of silence for the dearly departed (read: items in our home or once in our home that have bit the big one [bitten the big one?] due to mischief/curiousity/sneakiness/goodoldfashionedfun/furor/whathaveyou by one [or two if they work together] toddler[s]).

silence.

okay. seriously. things just vanish. and i clean up. all. the. time. multiple rooms. multiple times per day. to keep tabs on things. but there are several items that have gone missing. for good i'm afraid. this is in honor of you, white circle block that i amazingly found and then my dog ate anyway. sniff. you were a good white circle block. always went right in your round hole in the shape sorter. and remember that time we spent together when i fished you out of the nasty trash? that was so funny! oh we just laughed and laughed! ok i have to move on...

1. green wooden key to the melissa and doug key ring (survived by blue and yellow keys)

2. blocks #1 and #2 from cardboard stacking blocks (survived by 8 [larger/more obvious if in the trash can] blocks)

3. 8 or 9 or 23 ball pit balls that cracked, deflated, or otherwise expired (survived by 6,000 ball pit balls of various colors), which reminds me...

4. dora the explorer ball bit (this one didn't disappear exactly. they acted like it was eddie's castle...pouncepouncepounce)

5. the kid's ear muffs from the eyes, toes, nose book (the ones that cover the "ears" of course), which this may be a blessing since it's my children's favorite page. they flip right to it to say "uh oh" (there is not near enough room for me to mention all the various components of books that are long gone...instead of "lift the flap" somehow in our house it is "rip the flap"). can't wait to introduce actual paper page books.

6. my personal favorite snack trap: white with a penguin on it (survived by green, purple, and orange)

7. elmo's head from the book "so big" (survived by elmo's big bootie and big feet)

8. at least 6 plastic spoons taken from high chair to various places in our home. never to return. (survived by 57 other plastic spoons of various colors)

9. every "washable" crayon that we owned. ok i helped with this one. because how many times can you say "no mouth" really? and that is a "washable" mess i wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. wait i don't have any enemies. lucky me. that is a "washable" mess i wouldn't wish on a cast member from "the hills." (survived by the non-washable old school crayola crayons, though surely some of those have disappeared too. i'm just too lazy to count)

10. an entire box of hostess 100 calorie mini cinnamon coffee cupcakes (survived by no one. they were delicious. so i've heard.)


i miss you.