Baby Pirate

E loves geocaching...for about a year, we've been searching the woods for treasures hidden by fellow geocachers, and E has really taken to it. We get her motivated to walk the trails by announcing, "Let's go find treasures!" When we find a cache, I open it and place it in front of her for the looting. She will pick out every last prize, setting some aside, flinging others over her shoulder, even trying to put some into her pockets. We need to watch that she doesn't walk away with the log book or the pen.

"I want sign it," she says, so I give her the pen and she scribbles some little "letters" as she spells her name out loud. Then we pack everything up, letter her pick one prize, and we leave something behind in trade. Today's cache went pretty well, considering that it was a quarter mile walk shortly after nap time. E was a real trooper, but she did NOT want to select just one prize. She wanted to take ALL of the marbles from a little ziploc bag, and I made her take just one. All of her screaming and rolling around did not change my mind....I needed to win this one. She may be young, but M and I are really trying to cultivate her already unselfish nature. "We need to leave those behind for someone else to find, sweetie." Scream, Scream, Scream, Kick. Seriously...she really does have an unselfish nature.

Oh well. We left with just one marble in her pocket, and a big frown on her face. When we got home, M helped her retrieve her treasure, and she ran off down the hall. I forgot about it until I went to put Baby m to bed. Walking to the crib, I felt something under the throw rug...E's stash. She had lifted up quite a bit of a heavy rug and put her marble underneath. I had to laugh. What a little pirate...stashing her loot. What will she do when she finds it missing tomorrow? I'd better watch my back.