{moment of panic}

This morning I awoke to the familiar sound of Eli rustling around near my bed. I managed to talk myself into opening one eye to see what he was up to and caught sight of the little monkey trying to scale my drawers so that he could reach my wedding rings. I quickly popped my head up, though still in a half-asleep daze, and shooed him away to "go play". Then I rested in my bed for a couple minutes more wondering why my little stinkers - I mean children - refuse to sleep past 7am. I finally forced my lazy body up and made the bed, after which, I reached for my wedding rings like I always do.

Oh no! My engagement ring was still safely nestled in its usual spot but my wedding band was gone.

I searched my bedside desperately. Did it fall behind my dresser? No. Did it fall on the side of my dresser? No. Did it somehow fall into one of my dresser drawers? No, no and no. (Now panic was setting in and I remembered Eli's loitering only ten minutes before.)

"Eli? Where's Mommy's ring?" I called knowing full-well that there's no way he was going to answer with any sort of rational response. So, instead I decided to try to think how he thinks and began visiting all his favorite places. Was it in his ball basket? No. Was it in his matchbox-car basket? No. Was it in the big-truck basket? No.

At that point my eyes started to tear up in a panic over never finding my band again and tried to remind myself that "it could be worse" and "at least it's not my engagement ring (which Devin custom designed)". Just as those encouraging thoughts entered my mind, I remembered Eli's favorite thing of all. The toilet.

I rushed into the bathroom and peered into the empty toilet bowl knowing that his favorite thing about the toilet is, after all, the flusher. Well, if he had flushed it, it's a lost cause but I continued wracking my brain. Then I remembered another one of Eli's favorite pastimes. Eating. Eating anything no matter how inedible or disgusting. I decided to continue looking dreading the thought of dirty-diaper digging the next couple days. Would a wedding band retrieved in such circumstances even be worth saving?

Just as my panic was about to reach an all-time high and just as I was considering throwing myself on the floor in a fit of despair, Eli rounded the corner of his bedroom with his race-car bucket in tow. Why didn't I think of that? (And why is the little punk playing instead of helping me?)

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I vow to always hide my rings from the monkey from this moment on and I'm so glad I found it!