Disappearing Items

Disappearing Items…
Why Hayden finds the need to hide things is beyond me. It’s one thing to destroy items, but to secretly place them in a spot that I may or may not ever recover the item is far worse. At least I know that once she destroys an item that it’s gone forever. Then I have the decision to replace it or simply let it become a casualty of her recklessness. I used to find it rather amusing when I would go to sweep under the couch and find a credit card that I had long reported stolen months ago, but as more important things begin to disappear, my patience grows thin.
I think I may have written once about the case of the disappearing Swedish sneakers- I had bought Hayden these awesome summer sneakers on Zappos.com. I totally loved them and convinced myself that they were worth the high price tag. One day, they disappeared. Long story short- My mother accused me of throwing the shoes out by accident because “that’s exactly something you would do”- My husband blamed me for being a “hot mess and losing them”. No one accused the 14 month old. I went online and bought another pair of similar shoes, minus the high price tag. They were not nearly as cute but I reasoned that I could not spend that amount of money twice. Didn’t matter though because a couple days after the new ones arrived, the old ones made an appearance… at the bottom of Hayden’s hamper. Hayden loves to “put things away” and I had no doubt she also put her shoes away- at the bottom of her hamper.
Anyway, I have this coupon holder that I got at Old Navy. It’s cute. It says “Coupon Queen” on the front and is an accordion type holder that holds all my coupons. I love coupons. As I was re-organizing my purse, I made the decision that I should keep all my gift cards with my coupons. That seemed logical. What I didn’t plan was that Hayden was going to somehow get a hold of my coupon holder and lose it and/or hide it. It’s been one month and no sign of it. I’ve searched high and low. I had over $300 in gift cards that I was stocking up to purchase Hayden new fall clothes. Not to mention my coupon for the free gallon of milk at Stop and Shop that I was excited to finally use.
During the endless search, I did manage to find some other items that I hadn’t even realized were missing. These items included: my old sunglasses in a pasta pot in the kitchen, two bracelets in our fireplace, three crayons in my Steve Madden heels and a pair of Hayden’s shorts hidden behind a plant in the dining room. She’s going to be an awesome “hide and seeker”.
So, I continue to pray to St. Anthony for the return of my coupons and gift cards even though I have a feeling it may be hidden behind the bread racks at Costco and I will never find it. I guess it could be worse- One of my best girlfriends also has a hider- He hid the cable card that goes into the cable box. They couldn’t watch TV for a week. To me, that would be emotionally devastating.