Thursday July 31st, 2008
A few months ago, we lost our remote control to the TV. Like all households, it is usually the first thing to be disappear.
Not under the sofa cushions. Not in the downstairs bathroom. Not on top of the piano. And it wasn’t underneath the dining room table. We emptied the toy boxes, and looked behind the shelves. Nothing.
We lived without it for more than a week. My husband, meanwhile, had moved from moderate annoyance to all out grumpiness. He didn’t want to relive his elementary years when he was forced to heave his body off of the couch to turn the DIAL on the television to switch the channels (that was when there were only 13 of them plus PBS). 
(And, as an aside, in my house growing up the person who got up to change the channel also had to hit it squarely on the top to adjust the picture. We called it “bopping” the TV.)
One day, about 8 days into our remote control withdrawl, Naomi ran into the living room with the grey beast in hand. She’d found it! Hope and I screamed, laughed and praised the two-year-old for her mature resourcefulness. Naomi grinned and we, from the sofa, turned the channel to Nanalan’. She was our hero for the day.
A week later, it happened again. We lost it. Easy to do in a house filled with toys, papers and other cluttery things. On whim, I decided to ask Naomi before I sent out the search dogs for it.
She set down her milk, walked over to the sofa and bent down. She reached underneath it and around the back and pulled out the remote control. It was in a place it would never have gotten to on its own. She had hidden it there, and then produced it when the time was right.
It had never occured to me that she was hiding things and then “finding” them when we had become exasperated. I’ve heard stories of toddlers throwing wallets in the trash can or keys down the toilet. My older daughter had always avoided antics of this particular type, so I never thought that my second child would be a “trasher” or a “hider”.
She was hiding things, but was spinning it so that she was the hero.
I began to wonder what else she had hidden and quickly thought of all the things I couldn’t exactly find right now. My watch. I asked her and she “found” it for me. The hairbrush. Again, she produced it quickly.
When we packed up to leave the beach house last month to come home from vacation, we searched every drawer in every room. We found my mother’s flip flops she had “misplaced.”
If you lose your remote, or your keys, or even if you misplace your sandals, email me. I’ll ask the toddler where they are. Chances are, she’ll know.
Okay, well, I just think it’s adorable that she wanted to be the “Hero.”
Too, too cute.
i’m reading this, and i say OUTLOUD “wow…”
thinking: how often do i spin circumstances to make myself look good? how often do i manipulate for others’ praise?
gotta think about this one.
i’ve lost my mind, naomi, will you help me find it? =) too cute she is.
i tagged you, if you want to play along.
That is so funny! It’s one of those stories you’ll enjoy telling her kids someday!
little rascal! she’s totally got it figured out! that is so funny.
A few years ago I had been frantically searching for my checkbook. There were bills to pay, but no checkbook to be found. On a whim, I asked my then 3-year old son if he knew where it was. Within minutes he “found” it hiding in the back cubby hole of our van and he was so proud. He still remembers hiding it there. I should probably check to see if any other missing items are still there.
That cracked me up! She’s a clever one, I have to give her credit.
Okay, how ’bout a dozen or so paccifiers, four sippy cups and six plastic toddler bibs? Let me know when she’s found them.
That is so funny. What a story you will have to remind her about later.
Wow, I will have to keep this in mind as Adeline grows. We really are born knowing how to be manipulative. She is too cute though.
Yeah for Naomi!!! so funny!
They seem to put things away for safe keeping! Landon recently “hid” Lance’s pager in a dig hole in our friends back yard when Lance was on call. Sometimes you just have to laugh at what goes through their little heads.