Hide and Seek: Torture the Parents Version

Surely we're not the only family who plays this game?!

Thing 2 has always been adventurous. She's clearly related to my dad, and to my brother. She has no fear and that, coupled with a healthy dose of curiosity, lead her all sorts of places. In general, this is a great character trait. Why it does not reach over into trying new foods I do not understand but that in and of itself is worth a whole blog entry. I will spare you from that. Here is Thing 2 demonstrating her curiosity and agility, in the fireplace in our then-new-house, fortunately before we used it.

She graduated from a crib to a bed right around the time she turned three. One night, when Dave went to kiss her goodnight before heading to bed himself, she wasn't there. He looked for her for a good 15 minutes before waking me to enlist my help. The alarm was on so she was in the house, somewhere. Ten minutes later, and just before I was ready to call 911 to enlist someone smarter's help, we found her. She was in his walk-in closet, asleep behind a hanging row of clothes, completely hidden from view. I got more grey hair that night.

Perhaps a year after that she disappeared at bedtime again. It didn't take us that long to find her, though, she never left her room. She simply crawled under her bed with a blanket and decided to sleep there.

Last night, same thing. I finally found her in our bed, completely covered by the pillows, which are only arranged just so once a week -- the day the housekeeper comes. The picture to the left is what our bed looked like made, with her hidden within in. To the right, below, is her asleep, oblivious to the search and rescue mission going on while she snored away.

She had no recollection of this when I queried her on it this morning. I don't think she sleep walks -- she just has a short memory of things not related to soccer, dogs and equity between siblings.