Remote

When I was single and living in my parents basement, I hardly ever misplaced anything. I always knew where my stuff was. I always left my keys and wallet in the same place... day in and day out. On the rare occasion when I couldn't find something like my sunglasses, I could easily go through the list of places I might have left them. In the car. By the tv. The back of the toilet. On my headboard. And I could always find them within a few minutes.

Once I moved out of my parents house and moved in with 8 other dudes, things changed a little bit. If I misplaced something, I could sometimes locate them by going through a list of places they might be. But if I couldn't find them, I'd assume one of my savage roommates borrowed whatever it was without permission. At that point I'd go through the expanded list of possible locations. In John's room. Under Adam's bed. In Tom's car. Under Abe's pillow. It took significantly longer to locate my personal items, but I could usually find them.

Once I had children... all of this changed. If I ever lose something... it's gone... with few exceptions. There's no such thing as a "it's probably here" scenario. There's no limit to where my stuff could be. I've found my tools (ie Hammer, tape measure) in the refrigerator. I've found my DVD's in my kids drawers in their bedroom. I've found applesauce in my kids' backpack. I'm pretty sure most of our missing remote controls end up in the garbage cans and are inadvertently thrown away. By the time we realize our remote is probably in the garbage... it's usually already in the dumpster or has already been hauled away.

I don't think my kids are trying to hide my stuff on purpose. I think they just get carried away with their imaginations. Tyton has been known to hide his stuff from Boston and then forget where he hid it. I found Ty's Spongebob DVD on the top shelf of the cupboard the other day. I asked him what it was doing up there and he said Boston kept taking it out of the case and rubbing it on the wall. Tyton had pulled the kitchen drawers out like stairs and climbed to the countertop. He then climbed up the shelves like a ladder with the DVD in his mouth until he could put it on the top shelf.
I've actually watched Boston open the fridge to get a drink from his sippy cup, but he was carrying a stuffed animal and needed both hands. He placed his stuffed animal next to the milk, grabbed his cup, got a drink, put the cup back and closed the fridge... leaving his FurrBerry alone between the grapes and eggs to slowly freeze to death. I think Boston would feel even worse about it if he knew the fridge light goes off when the door closes... leaving his toy in the cold, pitch blackness of refrigerator hell.

I usually find myself chuckling when I find things in odd places. It's hard to be mad when I'm picturing how the X-box controller found it's way behind the dryer. I get a little upset, though, when I see brand new rolls of toilet paper floating in the toilet. That's just a waste.