he had me convinced

ian's new talent :: losing things that aren't lost.

on wednesday we went to the park after school. on the way home, i asked him if he had his lunch box and he answered in the affirmative. but when we got home he couldn't find it. i was annoyed, for obvious reasons, but we went back to the park to look for it.

ian remembered that he threw it under a tree when we first got to the park. "why would you throw it under a tree when you left your backpack with me?!" i asked him. "i don't know," was the reply. "are you sure you left it under the tree?" i asked him a couple more times just to be sure because i didn't remember seeing him with a lunchbox in his hands on the walk to the park. "yes, i'm sure," he said with conviction.

so, off he goes looking for the lunchbox under the tree. it's nowhere to be seen. he runs around and around the park looking for it to no avail. from a distance i can see the worried look he's getting, and he's almost on the verge of tears.

to be honest, at that point i was super-annoyed. and i can get pretty nasty when i'm super-annoyed. but i held my tongue; if i have nothing nice to say don't say anything at all. i knew he felt bad about it, so we could talk about it when i was less annoyed. but i knew i was going to make him pay for the new lunchbox if it came to that.

but, lo and behold, the next day after school ian comes up to me and says, "oh yeah, about that lunchbox. it turns out i left it at school ..." after all that drama he didn't even have the lunchbox at the park. it's one thing to think that you left it somewhere at the park, but he was so sure that he threw it under a tree. he "lost" it at such a specific place how could i not have believed he left if there??

he's a (book) smart kid but sometimes he's such a space cadet. so now i have to add "forgets something in one place and thinks he lost it somewhere else" to the list of absentminded things he does.