Unfounded Distrust

Both girls recently went to the dentist. One girl cried and carried on so much that she only got 3 of 4 x-rays taken, had her teeth counted, brushed with a regular toothbrush and painted with fluoride. Said girl (Ella), still left the dentist with a giant smile because she was still able to visit the wall of stickers and the treasure chest, and because our family was new to the practice, we received a whole movie bag consisting of snacks, juices, movie tickets and popcorn. Second girl visited a week later and was a complete joy for her dentist and hygienist, x-rays, full cleaning that included “Mr. Thirsty” (spit sucker), flossing, fluoride – all with a smile and giggles. Said girl (Lily) also visited the sticker wall, treasure chest and got entered in the cavity-free club!

Both girls chose a fantastic “bejeweled” heart ring from the treasure chest. Ella would keep hers on the windowsill next to her bed. One day, she came to me very serious, asking for some glue. Because I have a reason to distrust a small child with glue, I was sure to question Ella before blindly handing over a bottle of glue.

Side story: I believe it was our second full day in our brand new house, pre furniture, when the girls found a bag of office supplies. I didn’t think anything of it, since they are no strangers to Post-it notes, and they were quite busy playing school. Until, I walked in the living room and they had used Sharpie markers to write on each Post-it which they had then stuck to the wall. That in itself wasn’t horrible, except that they used a glue stick to stick the papers to the wall! Our house was officially “broken-in”.

I asked Ella why she needed glue. She had hatched a plan. She was absolutely sure the crew working to build the house next to us was going to steal her ring off of the windowsill. I’m not sure where the distrust was coming from as we’ve never felt unsafe or distrustful of the workers surrounding us, nor have we voiced concern. Didn’t matter what I said, she was pretty sure that someone was going to steal her fancy ring. Her plan was to glue it to the windowsill so nobody could take it. While I couldn’t straight up point out that nobody was going to break into our house *just* to steal her three cent ring, I could point out that if she glued it down, she wouldn’t be able to wear it either. You could practically see the little hamster wheel turning in her head. I assured her that we had a security alarm just to protect her valuable jewels. That seemed to put her mind at ease.

I organized and decorated the playroom and while doing that, introduced both girls to their drawer. A special drawer just for them and only them to keep their treasures. Nobody, i.e.: their sister, is allowed to remove anything from their drawer without permission. Now the drawers have become great places to store small toys just to spite one another. And of course, fabulous jewels. Ella is also keeping the loot she earned through the reading contest at school. She got to the highest reading level, six, for reading over 1,200 minutes in the last eight weeks of school. This honor comes with a photo of the reader hung in the library, glitter pens, tube erasers, bookmarks, free pizza certificate and a hearty congratulations by the librarian.

Chelsey’s cat, who is now a resident at our house, also has trust issues with the workers. She sits in the widows and growls at everyone she sees wearing a hardhat. So much ridiculousness within our walls.