Princess Grumpy and Her Jewels

My dear Adrian is a pack rat! She will find and bring home the most idiotic thing (in a grown ups mind) and place in her “magic little secret stash”. Most of the time it is a pretty benign haul…business cards, tooth picks, brochures, hair bows, anything that I really think she does just to make her daddy go “Why Adrian? Why?” This little secrete spot is exactly how I would picture a “House elf’s nest” from Harry Potter.

Adrian is absolutely so sure that I do not know where it is. If she wants to hide anything there or to retrieve anything from it she gets secretive… she tells me not to look and scans the hallway for prying eyes of her siblings and then dives into the little spot between the bed and the ladder that goes to the upper bunk.

Some days I feel bad that I know where her little secret place is…yes Adrian I do (and wait till you see me cyber stalk her and control her myspace page when she are older). When I pick up her room I usually move everything, neaten it and vacuum under it and put it back. I also take any old dishes to the kitchen so she doesn’t start a mold collection too. But most of the time I just leave it alone. If I am missing something and I can’t find it…I usually look there and have a really high chance of finding it. Daddy’s glasses were missing for 18 hours and low and behold…they were there. (She wanted daddy to stay home …so she thought if he didn’t have his glasses he could stay and play with her)

I went to wash her bed sheets, I carefully moved all of the stuff…the books, and clean empty yogurt cups, the crayons, her writing book, her five pairs of Aunt Karen’s broken sun glasses, assorted special toys, her “make up”, and a bag of fake money. I put the sheet, the blanket and her pillows in the washer. I then subsequently move them to the dryer. I hear a little funny noise coming from the dryer….the little preschool bus comes…I have to run out and meet the girls.

Eliza and Adrian are always excited to return home, Adrian comes in and then I go back to trying to figure out what the noise is. I start by opening the door, and our start falling rocks…about 4 or 5….I pull on the blanket…out fall some more…. Adrian screams at the top of her lungs!!! This then causes Eliza to start wailing and I am extremely confused at to what rocks are doing in my dryer.

Adrian then starts grabbing them and crying. This little girl can cry and get to a point where she can’t speak ….due to the tears speak… faster than most little ones I have seen. I am actually really very confused and thankfully relieved that the dryer is not falling apart! After about three minutes, Adrian becomes a little easier to understand between the wails and I realize that she is upset about the rocks.

She is crying about “her jewels”. These are just run of the mill; little drive way rocks that have been well ground by some river in their previous home. But to my little girl they are her jewels. She had them in bed with her and when I pulled up the sheet I must have pulled them up too.

She is blubbering and it is very difficult to here her but in the sincerity of a four year old princess….she says “mommmm mommmm de de de they were for you” insert the horrible wailing of banshee here, “ I ga ..ga…ga…got you the jewels to help build our new house” wail a little more “They have the sparklies in them so they are like your ring” (my engagement ring) and “you can give them to the guy to fix the house and make all the rooms”

I was so surprised and then handed me all of the precious jewels that she picked up off the floor in front of the dryer and then together we look for the rest. I told her that daddy and I really appreciate the thought and love her for wanting to help us…but she needed to keep her jewels for herself. So I found her a new “jewel” box and we spend a little time to decorate it and put all of the rocks back into it ….together …she tells me all of the things she wants with them…since I don’t need them to build the house . She is going to get a new bike for Colin, a new computer for daddy, pay for Kayla’s books, get grandma a car, buy Melea a new baby doll so she will leave Jordan alone, and to help the poor kids on TV.

We smile, go upstairs for lunch with Eliza and Miranda… I see her sneak off down the hall… look both ways …and go in her room and I know she is taking them to her secrete place. All little girls need a secrete place to hide their most treasured possessions. I need one too, there are days I wish that I could hide and protect all of my children from the world and the “bad” people out there. But I would be protecting them from the good ones too.

But today I will sit and smile and laugh (inside) as Princess Grumpy Skips down the hall to her secrete spot. I will remember her precious “jewels” and be struck by how much she wants to help others. I am also going to be very worried if my credit card ever disappears!!!