It's Time for Another Exciting Edition of...

...I Spy. The game all mothers love to play. After all, we thoroughly enjoy the fact that our children leave delightful little surprises for us in the oddest places, don't we? We always appreciate the fact that they make life unpredictable; we wouldn't want to be bored and actually find things in their proper places, would we?

Here are some recent discoveries I've made (and thought to take a picture of before I returned the item to its true home):

~ a squishy ball in the drawer with baby spoons and other kitchen utensils...in case I want to play while I cook, I suppose

~ some wooden blocks under Tobin's pillow...put there by David who didn't think to remove them himself or tell me they were there until Tobin had slept on them for a night or two...it made me think of "The Princess and the Pea"...I guess Tobin doesn't have royal blood since the blocks didn't seem to phase him

~ a plastic cup in Shav's laundry basket...dirty clothes, dirty cup, what's the difference? they all need to be washed...maybe that's what Tobin was thinking when he threw it in there anyway

~ I didn't get a picture of this; but one evening not too long ago, I could not find Tobin's sippy cup of milk when it was time for supper...I asked him where it was, but he didn't produce it...I looked around in the kitchen and living room...I even offered a reward (a dime or a nickel, can't remember for sure) to Josiah and David if they could find it...they looked, but had no success...no one knew where it was...eventually I just got another sippy cup for Tobin and filled it with milk which was not a big deal...what WAS a big deal was the thought that days or weeks could go by, and a mysterious smell might start emanating from the less-than-fresh milk in the hidden sippy cup...as it turned out, I was the one to find the cup; as I was "redding up" the living room that night, I put a toy in the back of the closet by the front door...there, on the floor, with a little milk already leaking out of it and making a puddle, was Tobin's lost sippy cup...if I had not had to put away that particular toy that goes in that particular spot of the closet, I would not have found the cup because it was blocked from view by other things on the floor of the closet...as they say, all's well that end's well :)

~ and the funniest one to me: after the potluck party for David last Friday, I found the candle we had used on his cake...except, wait, something's wrong with it!...

...someone had taken a substantial bite out of it...um, yummy!...wax!...part of everyone's nutritious diet-or not...I'm not exactly sure who did it, but I have a feeling it was Tobin since, when he saw the candle, he pointed to his mouth and said, "mouth! mouth!"...maybe we should get a new #5 candle when he turns 5, or maybe we should just use this one and lovingly remind him of the time he decided to eat, not only David's birthday cake, but also David's birthday CANDLE! :)