I can't hear you, I can't hear you, mmm...

For many months now, Thomas has LOVED to rifle through our wallets. He likes to generally rearrange everything. You know, he does standard stuff like move carefully organized receipts from one place to another, puts all the never-used airline frequent flyer cards into one overstuffed card slot, removes the pen from its little holder and usually finds a few seconds to admire any pictures of himself he can find.

He got a hold of my purse this morning and in order to buy a few minutes to finish up my pre-work routine, I turned my back on the activity. When I returned to the bedroom, this is what I found.

You'll notice tht he's got my Visa card in his right hand and this is when Mommy began gently encouraging (or maybe loudly demanding) with him to put the wallet away. But, alas, he couldn't hear me. Those are orange ear plugs in - and around - his left ear. There were approximately 11 of them. In one ear. Apparently that makes it very difficult to hear. I like to call this photo, "I can see your lips moving but I can't seem to make out what you're saying, mommy."

We got the wallet reassembled, thrown in the purse and we headed out to school. I dropped Thomas in the toddler room first, then took Andrew to Pre 2. Upon leaving Pre 2 I was greeted in the hallway by Thomas' teacher. He was holding 17 cents in his hand. It was 17 pennies that had apparently been pilfered from our bathroom drawer and my wallet. He had found them in Thomas' pockets and felt as though pennies weren't appropriate playthings for the 18-month to 2.5-year-old set. I'm seriously going to win a parenting award any day now.