In that play area, there is a toy box that recently broke, so I went through it today and threw out all the broken toys. The kids were pretty engrossed in the show they were watching, so for a while, they didn't even notice.
Until, of course, they did. Ava took it pretty well when I explained that I was just throwing out things that were broken, but Jace immediately took it upon himself to stick his head right into the garbage bag and grab out an old, broken, probably from McDonald's boat without the sail attached.
I have never even seen this boat, so it's not like he is super attached to it, for the record.
I asked him to please return the boat to the bag, and he looked at me like I asked him to chop his own arm off. His lip started quivering, and he slowly returned the boat to the bag. Then, about ten seconds later, he completely lost it.
He was carrying on and screaming so much that neither Ava or I could understand what he was saying. I told him the sail to the boat was missing, and we couldn't keep toys with missing pieces. He went on like that for about ten minutes, and then, suddenly, he knew what would make him feel better. A donut. A donut would make him feel better about throwing his precious (even though he hadn't even known it was in the depths of the toy box) boat. And how convenient! We just so happened to get donuts at the store this morning.
It was 11:30. There was no way I was feeding him a donut when lunch was literally being prepared right then. I said no. Cue round two of the losing it. Finally, I sent him to his room to cry, and I continued making lunch, throwing various things into the garbage bag I had been using for toys as I cooked. I took some trash out and got the mail. I went through some more toys, and through our junk drawer. The bag was almost full.
About fifteen minutes later, Jace came back out, a huge smile on his face. In has hand was the freaking sail to the freaking boat that was at the bottom of a 42 gallon garbage bag that was filled with all kinds of stuff, some of it food. He looked so excited. I looked back and forth from him to the trash bag that I could have literally climbed into and had room to spare, full to the brim.
I did it. I dove into the bag, ignoring the gross slimy food and whatever else I had thrown in there, and searched long and hard.
And came up with nothing.
As I came up for air out of the garbage bag, I suddenly realized that his boat was in another garbage bag, one that was already tied and sitting out for the garbage man. There was absolutely no way I was searching through another bag.
So I told him the sail was to another boat. Totally lied to him. But I really had no choice. I don't go through the trash. It was a testament to how much I loved him that I had done it once. Ugh.
