The Case of the Missing Keys

Dora the Explorer is a kids' show on Nickelodeon. Maya has become a big fan of Dora. She has even learned quite a bit of Spanish from Dora. I thought watching Dora DVDs would be a good thing until Maya starting becoming more like Swiper. Swiper is a fox that Dora befriends. He has a bad habit of stealing things and then hiding them. In each episode of Dora, it is often a goal for the viewer to help find something that Swiper has swiped. He says in a sneaky voice, "Ha ha ha... you'll never find it now!" once something of Dora's has gone missing.

Maya starting "hiding" things at a very young age. Once, Jeff seemed to misplace his driver's license. It went missing and he eventually had to go to the DMV and have it replaced. I decided to clean out our dog's kennel one day and I found Jeff's license inside along with various other items that had disappeared. Maya was about 18 months old.

When we moved to Ohio, I was very pregnant and so I didn't unpack (and still haven't unpacked) everything. Maya's sippy cups seemed to become more sparse by the day. I knew I had unpacked a few of them at least. One day I opened up the drawer to the buffet and found all kinds of goodies, including some very yucky sippy cups.

When Reili was born, Maya started taking her little sister's pacifier and hiding it. One time we were in the car and she took the pacifier out of Reili's mouth and said, "Ha ha ha! You'll never find it now!" and then proceeded to throw the pacifier on the car floor, out of my reach. I couldn't believe what an evil sounding voice was coming from my little girl's mouth! Where did she get such an idea? Why did she think it was fun to hide Reili's pacifier? Ah, that darned Swiper!!! After that, whenever I would leave Reili alone with Maya, I would often come back to a crying baby with no pacifier.

The other night, around 10pm, Jeff told me he couldn't find his keys. I usually will look somewhere obvious, smirk, and hand Jeff whatever it is he is looking for. I said to him in a know-it-all kind of voice, "I'll go in the living room and find it for you." Well, my search for the 'obvious' item was fruitless. We started backtracking everything Jeff did when he got home. We went through cushions, looked everywhere possible until it dawned on me that our little "Swiper" had spent some time playing alone in her room earlier. I went into Maya's room, opened a cabinet where she likes to hide, and Voila! the missing keys were found.