"Auntie Ivy?" asked Jamie who was trying (and failing) to help me fold up the laundry. He really did want to help me, but he was definitely still too little to do it. I had assigned him to finding matching socks because I figured he could help with that.
"Yes, Jamie?" I replied as I tried to discretely fold the underwear. I did not feel like answering any questions about why my underwear was shaped differently or had certain explicit patterns on it. I really just shouldn't have kept the pairs I'd gotten at bachelorette parties, but free was free! Now maybe I could have managed to not pack it for when I was watching my nephew for a week but that required more planning than a last minute trip took.
Not exactly my last minute trip, mind you. My sister and her husband had pretty spontaneously decided that they would celebrate their seven year anniversary with a grand, romantic Paris vacation, but they didn't want to bring Jamie without being able to a sitter come along with them and they couldn't realistically afford that. So my sister had called me to ask if I could watch my dear, dear godchild and I said yes. I did love my nephew so much and my sister knew it. She knew I couldn't pass up hanging out with him for so long, even if it meant a slapdash trip to the airport. And in that slapdash trip, I had grabbed the things I owned that were still clean only to find that my sister had left me her, her husband's, and her son's laundry to do, so I ended up washing all of my clothes just to be safe because my clean and dirty clothes often commingled.
Oh well. I had gotten so lost in my thoughts that I had missed what Jamie had said to me. "Sorry, Jamie, what did you say?"
He huffed a bit, but then repeated himself. "I said, 'Why are there socks that don't have a match?'"
"I'm sure there is a match somewhere, you just have to keep looking." I kept folding up my brother-in-law's shirts and tried to pretend it was normal when I found out his pajama pants had troll dolls on them.
"No, look," Jamie said forcefully..
I looked up from my stacks of laundry to look at his progress with the socks. He had sorted them all into piles by color, presumably to make finding matches easier. It was actually a pretty good system. But I did see that there was only one in the pink pile as well as the polka dot pile and then there were three in the yellow pile as well as the striped pile. "Huh, maybe we left some in the dryer. Let's go check."
Jamie and I went to the dryer and found no missing socks. "Where did they go?" asked Jamie.
"Must be the sock trolls," I said, whimsically.
"Trolls?" Jamie asked wide-eyed, luckily with interest and not horror. I'm glad that I played my card right and hadn't gotten it wrong.
"Yeah, trolls. They get dressed up in their favorite socks, but they only need one and don't like to match other trolls. This is why some pairs of socks end up missing their match."
"We should get more socks so we can try and see as many trolls as possible!" declared Jamie with an authority far above his years.
Loving the idea of my sister returning to an extra bin of socks for Jamie, I took my car keys out of my pocket and replied, "Let's find us a troll."
(Prompt by me)
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"Yes, Jamie?" I replied as I tried to discretely fold the underwear. I did not feel like answering any questions about why my underwear was shaped differently or had certain explicit patterns on it. I really just shouldn't have kept the pairs I'd gotten at bachelorette parties, but free was free! Now maybe I could have managed to not pack it for when I was watching my nephew for a week but that required more planning than a last minute trip took.
Not exactly my last minute trip, mind you. My sister and her husband had pretty spontaneously decided that they would celebrate their seven year anniversary with a grand, romantic Paris vacation, but they didn't want to bring Jamie without being able to a sitter come along with them and they couldn't realistically afford that. So my sister had called me to ask if I could watch my dear, dear godchild and I said yes. I did love my nephew so much and my sister knew it. She knew I couldn't pass up hanging out with him for so long, even if it meant a slapdash trip to the airport. And in that slapdash trip, I had grabbed the things I owned that were still clean only to find that my sister had left me her, her husband's, and her son's laundry to do, so I ended up washing all of my clothes just to be safe because my clean and dirty clothes often commingled.
Oh well. I had gotten so lost in my thoughts that I had missed what Jamie had said to me. "Sorry, Jamie, what did you say?"
He huffed a bit, but then repeated himself. "I said, 'Why are there socks that don't have a match?'"
"I'm sure there is a match somewhere, you just have to keep looking." I kept folding up my brother-in-law's shirts and tried to pretend it was normal when I found out his pajama pants had troll dolls on them.
"No, look," Jamie said forcefully..
I looked up from my stacks of laundry to look at his progress with the socks. He had sorted them all into piles by color, presumably to make finding matches easier. It was actually a pretty good system. But I did see that there was only one in the pink pile as well as the polka dot pile and then there were three in the yellow pile as well as the striped pile. "Huh, maybe we left some in the dryer. Let's go check."
Jamie and I went to the dryer and found no missing socks. "Where did they go?" asked Jamie.
"Must be the sock trolls," I said, whimsically.
"Trolls?" Jamie asked wide-eyed, luckily with interest and not horror. I'm glad that I played my card right and hadn't gotten it wrong.
"Yeah, trolls. They get dressed up in their favorite socks, but they only need one and don't like to match other trolls. This is why some pairs of socks end up missing their match."
"We should get more socks so we can try and see as many trolls as possible!" declared Jamie with an authority far above his years.
Loving the idea of my sister returning to an extra bin of socks for Jamie, I took my car keys out of my pocket and replied, "Let's find us a troll."
(Prompt by me)
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