Wednesday, September 03, 2008

one person's garbage is another's special friend

Lucy is a hoarder by nature, as anyone could tell by glancing idly into her bedroom. Recently the pink light bulb in Lucy's nightlight burnt out, and she couldn't bear to see it thrown away after it was replaced. "Nighty!" she sobbed, stroking the burnt-out light bulb. "Nighty kept me company at night for so long!" She ended up making a little blanket for "Nighty" and cradling the little light bulb in her arms that night in bed.

Over the weekend we took the children to see "Wall-E", and Lucy took a liking to her slushee cup. The Sober Husband tried to pull it out of her hands when she dozed off towards the end of the movie, and Lucy, waking up, slapped his hands away and clutched the empty cup passionately to her bosom. That cup, now named "Cupy" (Lucy put a post-it note on it reading "Cupy" as a primitive form of nametag) has become an important member of the family, although I worry about Lucy getting food poisoning from bits of decaying chocolate milk gunk in its seams.

Yesterday I took the children and one of Iris's friends out to lunch, and Lucy held onto her lemonade cup for some hours. Eventually she dropped it on the sidewalk and the rest of the lemonade spilled. I told her to put it in a nearby trash can. Later at home, Lucy confronted me. "If you hadn't made me throw out my cup after I dropped it, CUPY WOULD HAVE HAD A BROTHER!!" She gave me an angry and aggrieved glare. "AND CUPY WANTS A BROTHER!"

9 comments:

dfratzke said...

Is now the time to teach lovely Lucy all about the wonderful statement: If wishes (wants) and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas!

? (we used this statement with our girls all the time, because they understood just because they wished and wanted, they wouldn't always get what they desired!)

Good luck! This is how big-time cluttering begins (anyway, that's what I think), so nip it in the bud now. Seriously.

/dawn

Anonymous said...

But my butt IS candy!

hughman said...

soon cupy will have 4 siblings and be able to run for vice president! who-hoo!

Silliyak said...

Just make sure she doesn't see the South Park episodes with Mr Hankie

hokgardner said...

This could describe both of my daughters. We had great tears from both because a long-deflated balloon animal got thrown out. I go in their room once a month while they're at school and throw away their "treasures."

Amy said...

Maybe *LUCY* needs a brother. Now that your youngest has reached school age, you're probably getting way a dangerous amount of peace and quiet *weg*.

Joyce said...

if my parents said that thing about the candy and nuts, i would have wanted to punch them. still, my hoarding family members scare me.

Anonymous said...

I'm always so happy when you share some of Lucy's age-appropriate craziness, Carole, because it reassures me about Quirin's!

Freewheel said...

I have a child who does this, and I have a convoluted theory about the cause of it. In any event, I think it's great that you handle it in such a laidback way.