Pirates didn't take the cash. Sorry Katie.

Katie had a stash of cash (about $14) she found on the counter that *someone* (not mommy) let her play with.

She played with this money for a very long time till she finally set it down and went off into the kitchen. So someone (mommy) took the money** and hid it in the waistband of her "at home" pants. She came back in and was very concerned.

** I only took the money away because she's been known to tear paper just "because" and even after I told her very seriously about the value of the cash, I was still a little worried that to her it would only be "paper" and we would be having another discussion about how not good it is to rip it up while we're actually looking at a pile of ripped up cash.

I could see that this was going to be a big deal. So I told her that I thought pirates took the money and ran off. I know, not nice to tell a lie. But this could have gone down very badly had I just told her that she couldn't play with it anymore.

I figured she would let it go after a bit and play with something else. She did not.

I heard so many quesitons about pirates. Why did the pirates take my money? Where did the pirates go? Are they bad pirates? Are the pirates still here?

After about 40 minutes of this, I finally dropped the money behind my chair (into her "kitchen" area by our front door) and told her she should check her kitchen to see if they were hiding there. She glanced over and said "no, no pirates there" and I told her she should really check the door. So she did and exclaimed "Mommy! The pirates left my money!" She was very happy.

I thought she would go back to quiet playtime. That didn't work because now she wanted to examine the motives of these pirates all over again. All. Over. Again.

Mommy, why those pirats come here? Why those pirates leave my money? And so on and so on.

So I told her that she should go talk to Daddy... because he knows pirates. And she did (hee hee hee). That worked great till daddy (AKA: The Rat) told her that Mommy knows lots more about pirates because Mommy studied them in school. Grrr.

So we were on again. Till she finally ran out of steam. And she was distracted by Daddy leaving the living room.

So, Mommy learned her lesson. Next time I tell her to talk to daddy because he knows soooo much about whatever it is she's curious about... Mommy won't sit in her chair, waiting to see how Daddy will respond to Katie and her million questions. No way.

Instead, Mommy will run.