On Matryoshkas and going bonkers

The girls received a Matryoshka doll from granny. It’s a Russian nesting doll. Really nice and colourful toys, but chokable. Highly chokable, especially when you have a 9-month old crawling around, sticking everything in her mouth (but who mysteriously cannot manage to find her mouth when it comes to eating real food). Anyways.



So my eldest was playing with the matryoshkas, trying to figure out how to stack them. I’m hovering like a hawk, to make sure the youngest doesn’t get her hands (and mouth) on them. At some point, No.1 starts playing “supermarket” and brings the dolls to me (at the computer/cash register), to check them out so she can pay them. She brings the first two dolls, the tiniest. I beep them on my fake cash register, she takes the dolls and, for a half a second, I turn my eyes away.

And they are GONE. The teeny tiny wooden-peanut of a doll is gone. Her bigger sister too (bigger, so to speak – it’s about the size of a slightly larger cherry). Two choking hazards are AWOL and I cannot see them anywhere. I freeze.

“Honey, where are the two dolls that were just here a second ago? The ones I asked you not to let out of your sight?”
“Mmmmmm, dunno” (thinking really hard)
“Honey, they were just here. You took them from the desk and then…”
“Well, I don’t know”
“Did you take them anywhere”
“I can’t remember” (rubbing her chin)

I’m starting to boil. Where in the world are they???? How hard can it be???

“Honey, they were here, you took them and now they’re gone. Come on, help me find them”
“Ok, let’s find the dolls”. She takes her hide-and-seek tone (the mommy-go-hind-behind-the-curtain-and-i’ll-find-you tone). “Are the dolls here, in the potty? Noooooo. Are they here, in this book? No, mommy, they’re not here.”

Steam is already bursting out of my ears. Yes, she’s as cute as it gets, but I just want the two wooden fugitives locked back into the biggest matryoshka and out of the baby’s way.

So I try to cool down and try again.

“Honey, can you please focus and try to remember where the dolls are?”
“Oh, I remember! (index finger straight in the air, Sherlock look on her face). They are here, in the matyoshka drawer” and she points to thin air, giggling.

Arghhhhh, silly silly pretend play! Sure, it’s useful when your kid wants to go on a boat trip and all you have is a cardboard box and a broomstick. But when you don’t need the pretend-matryoshka from the pretend-matryoshka drawer, it’s not so fun anymore.

So we’re back to the drawing board. We have to do this the hard way. Half an hour later, after taking apart every piece of furniture in the room, I found the two silly dolls hiding behind some books. I’m still not sure how they got there, but I locked them up tight where they belong.