Peter's Obsession

Peter has an obsession with little things. He loves things he can hold in the palm of his hand and carry around the house. He especially loves them if they are people. We have our share of G.I. Joe's, and the famous plastic Cowboys and Indians, and we have a little Toy Story play set with a small Woody and Buzz, and more things than we can count to suit Peter's fancy. Well, this morning while I was busy (of course!) Peter found his way to our board games. It is a family rule that these are not to be taken out by anyone but a grown-up. But he must have forgotten that rule. He discovered game pieces!! Even better and smaller than any of his other toys, he loved it! He had Clue, Disney Sorry, and Disney Monopoly (didn't you know we were big Disney fans?) all set out with the game pieces neatly placed on the boards. It took everything in me not to be upset and put him in time-out, and put it all away. But how could I??? He was playing so cute! So I praised him for playing so nicely and we had a talk about how grown-ups need to be with him to play these games so we don't accidentally loose any pieces. (I can admit that I am a freak about having to have all the pieces to games, dolls, anything, I hate loosing things!) He was not happy about the arrangement I proposed. He wanted to keep playing, and more than that he wanted to keep the Clue people! After a few minutes I had convinced him to go and watch a movie for quiet time, and I cleaned up the mess. Normally I would insist upon the help of the children when they make a mess, but I didn't think it would be a pretty sight to see. Imagine, with each piece he picked up he would find a reason why it should not immediately go in the bag or box where it belonged. It should be played with one more time. And one excuse would lead to another and then trouble would occur. It would be far too long a process for Peter and me. So now it's all neatly put away and the house is quiet again, for the moment. The games are put away and I am seriously thinking about putting a child lock on the game cupboard door. Now that he knows they are there, there could be no stopping him...

But he was so cute sitting on the floor playing so innocently...