One man's trash is our boy's treasure

Eli loves to scavenge!  Everywhere we go, he loves to search the floors for items the rest of us would step over or not even see.  Springs, brads, nails, screws and bolts, rubber bands, paperclips, bits of string, plastic tags, pen caps, the occasional penny, colorful or shiny items, and other "cool" items which people drop on the floor and forget....our son spies these items and thinks Christmas has come early!  He collects these items, fills his pockets with them, brings them home to live on his shelf.

I have to watch Eli closely when it comes to his scavenging.  He feels anything on the floor is fair game!  He sometimes has trouble understanding that just because something rolled off a table and fell to the floor, doesn't necessarily mean he can stuff it in his pocket and take it home.  More than once we have had to make him return something he found because it actually belonged to someone.  This is upsetting to him!  It was on the floor, after all!  Why shouldn't it be his?!  

Last Sunday when Ben and I returned home from the hospital in Columbus after Ben's surgery, Eli was really struggling.  The 2 1/2 day separation was difficult on E and his emotions were all over the place that day.  I went in to his room to spend some time with him while he was attempting to calm down.  As I sat there talking with him, I glanced over to his treasure shelf.  I paused as what I was seeing began to register.

".....Eli...? Is that my eyeliner on your shelf?"

"Yeah."

"Why do you have my eyeliner, Eli?"

Shrug.  "I don't know.  It was on the floor."

Aha.

"Well, honey....it must have fallen out of my makeup basket.  May I please have my eyeliner back?"

Pause.  Sigh.  Resignation.

"I guess."

Apparently my eyeliner will be the one treasure that got away.