Busted!

Let's just move on past that pity party, maybe to a funny story . . .

Last week, daycare announced that they were going to donate all the lost and found items at the end of the week, and they set things out so that we parents could go through it to retrieve lost items. There was literally a mountain of stuff, mostly clothes, to dig through. Three different times I dug through the pile, hoping to find the pants, shirt, 100s of pairs of socks, panties, swim suits, and towels that we have lost there. (and yes, I do label everything, but somehow it disappears, hence the reason we only take grubbies there now) I was completely unsuccessful in finding even one of my missing items. The mountain had dwindled quite a bit, but there were still lots of items.

On the day before the donation was to take place, I made one more attempt to find anything that belonged to us. Again, I was unsuccessful. There were lots of towels in the pile; however none were mine. But I figured since it was all going to be donated the next day anyway, that I would simply replace my 2 lost towels with 2 others. I picked out 2 from the pile that I thought the girls would like - one had Hawaiian flowers and the other was a Dora the Explorer towel. Both were also labeled with names of kids who no longer attended daycare. So I knew I wasn't taking away something that someone else would miss. I put the towels in the back of the car and headed to work.

That night when I picked the girls up, Gracelin looked into the back of the car and saw the Dora towel. I don't know what made her look back there - somehow she has radar for that sort of stuff. Kind of like when she found the bike I'd carefully hidden in the garage for her 3rd birthday. She just loves new stuff (my little diva) and when she saw that Dora towel, she was estatic. "Mommy!" she exclaimed, "did you get this towel for MEEEEEE?"

"Yes sweetie, I did," I replied, "I got it for your swimming lessons that start next month."

She was so happy, and laid the towel over her lap like a blanket. I just let her think it was new. I didn't want her broadcasting to her friends and teachers that her mommy took stuff from the donation pile. Not that I think what I did was wrong or anything, but I was still a bit embarassed. Ya know?

Gracelin continued to love the towel the whole way home. She would lay it out so she could look at the picture, and then inspect every inch of it. Suddenly, she noticed that there was another name written on the tag.

"Mommy! Why is there someone else's name on MY towel?" she demanded.

I didn't have a good explanation. "I don't know sweetie."

Then she added, "And why is there a hole in MY new towel?"

I looked at her face in the rear-view mirror. She had figured things out and had a look of disapproval. DOH! I'd been caught - she knew it and so did I.

I guess next time I steal from the donation pile, I need to cover my tracks a bit better.