The Orange Crayon
It was a sad day yesterday.
At the end of bath time with the water draining from the tub, O, per usual, stayed behind to get a little alone time while I got M dressed. She was enjoying drawing all over the bathtub with her favorite, barely usable decapitated bathtub crayons.
When I returned, she was looking slightly forlorn with a finger down the drain. She calmly asked whether I might be able to retrieve her crayon from said drain.
She was severely disappointed to learn that the crayon, was most likely rubbing noses with the fish by now … well probably not fish per say, but you know what I mean.
O, however, did not know what I mean and slowly went from hopeful to devastated as the realization sunk in that the orange crayon… well it was gone for good.
She cried. She wanted to get out of the tub. She first wanted mommy, then she wanted daddy, and when neither one could work their magic to make the crayon reappear, she was just sad.
I know it sounds really silly. And it was mostly, really silly, but then it was also like watching O experience a first loss.
It gave me a little twinkling of an idea of how difficult it will be when the big losses start happening. Because now she truly gets it. Gets that the crayon, is gone, forever. And the worst part, she didn’t mean for the crayon to disappear, but it did nonetheless.
And so tonight’s post is dedicated to the lovely orange bathtub crayon I will now lovingly refer to as Oge (pronounced OH-g). We hope you really are swimming with the fishies tonight… and not knee deep in a stinky pile of crap.
Goodnight sweet Oge, goodnight.
