The Secret Stash

A few weeks ago, I was helping The Banana clean up her room.  We were going through the basket of socks, when I came across a particular grey sock filled with something heavy.  I looked inside and found about 10 marbles that we had been using when we played play dough.  "What are these doing in your sock?"  I asked.

"SHHHHHH!  My secret sock.  Nobody find that."

I was so charmed that I let her keep the secret stash of marbles.

It turns out The Banana is quite the collector of pilfered objects.  

I have several calculators that I try to keep around the vicinity of my desk.  This is not easy, because every one loves a calculator around here, and mine are forever disappearing, which is why I have so many, so that I can pull out a spare calculator when I need it.  Last week, one by one, my whole stash of calculators disappeared.  I couldn't figure it out.  I even went and got the calculator off my husband's desk.  That one disappeared too.

And then, over the weekend, it was Ya Ya's job to clean and organize her disaster-prone closet.  When she got to the bottom corner (no small feat) she pulled out a purse that used to belong to her, and the bag that is supposed to hold her sleeping bag.  Inside were all kinds of treasures:  all of my calculators, some items usually on my husband's desk, markers, pencils, all of the sharks from Mr. Sneaky Pants' ocean play set, several of Ya Ya's most coveted toys, sunglasses, Ya Ya's marbles, watches, on and on it went.  She came and got me.

When The Banana got wind that she'd been sniffed out, she was so distraught.  She was just deeply, deeply sad and upset and frustrated that her secrets had been discovered.  She so desperately wanted a place of her own to keep her little treasures.  

It nearly broke the heart of Dr. Peds.  And me too.  I confiscated the things that we really needed, the calculators, the things from my husband's desk, Ya Ya's marbles and Mr. Sneaky Pants' sharks.  And then Dr. Peds spent about twenty minutes looking around the house for replacement treasures with The Banana so that she could fill her bags back up.  He found an old electric dictionary with lots of buttons, some different marbles (with firm instructions not to eat them) a few tiny little animals unlike those of her siblings and other itty bitty things from various places.  

Ya Ya and Mr. Sneaky Pants have been ordered to leave the treasure bags alone, and my plan is to check the bags and return necessary items at secret times.  Every little girl has to have the opportunity to be a collector for a little bit, at least.