Henry likes keys

Henry likes keys.  Any keys.  Well, he especially likes car keys.  If he were taller, he'd already be driving.  He's tried on many an occasion to drive off in my minivan. I'm not sure where he would actually go but  I doubt he'd care. He'd be driving.  He REALLY wants a little  battery operated vehicle to drive around in.  I'm still looking for a cheap one. He did try to run off in a  pink Barbie car a couple of years ago. Ok I'll tell you that story then the  key fiasco.  
April 2008 ( or maybe  2009) no , I think  it was '08.  Yes, the boys were  5 and 6 years old. Anyway,we had a bad storm that turned out to be a very small tornado,maybe an F0 or F1. I don't know, I was cowering in the bathtub freaking out. It was  4 am for pete's sake!  Thankfully, the kids were in Plano with their father that night.  Anyway, this  storm  took down my fence and tore up  part of my roof.   The kids were absolutely thrilled about the fence b/c  it meant they could now get into the next door neighbor's yard. The house was a rental and was occupied by about  6  men from Honduras, a woman and a toddler.  None of them spoke English that I'm aware of.  ( We had several encounters with them compliments of Henry. All of them  funny thankfully. )

Anyway, the boys had spied a pink Barbie jeep on the other side and immediately set out to explore it.   The neighbors and I  pantomimed and gestured and laughed and  somehow figured out it was ok for the  boys to ride on it and I would charge the battery up for them once we finished. The fence was down for about  2 weeks so they had a LOT of quality time with the Barbie jeep.  They fought over it, they shared it, they gave their sisters rides in it.  One day, the boys were in the back yard playing with it and McLean decided to come inside. I asked him where Henry was and he said, "outside riding the car." Ok, well I went out to check an d  guess what, no Henry in the backyard. I started to call him, like he would actually answer me. ( I can  dream, can't I?)   I 'm running back and forth, no Henry. "McLean, where is your brother?"  " I dunno."  " Help me find him! "  We run out front and what do I see ( or who) heading down the middle of the street, away from the house, in  a  pink Barbie jeep, at 5 miles per hour....... oh Henry!   He was making  " beep beep " noises and quite pleased with  himself.  He was quite upset with me when I told him  driving time was over.  I didn't know if I should spank him for being in the street or laugh because it was so funny.  So, like any good parent (  ;-)  )  I took a photo for future blackmail purposes. 

oh, story #2. Keys.  This week, March  2011.  the boys are now  8 and  9.  It's Spring Break this week and I had to  pop into work a  couple of times so I brought the Horde plus one. McLean's best friend C, has been  with us  24/7 for the  most part, this week. so I  took  5 rambunctious kids to work ( I work at a historic  village museum) so I could clean and prep for  toddler storytime.  Then we had to  return the next day for storytime. Thankfully, no one showed, Imagine me trying to read to   a  group of toddlers, then do a  craft with them that involved  popcorn that was painted blue, glue and my Herd running around.  oy vey!  They  4 big kids were outside  playing croquet. Or should I say, fighting over croquet.  McLean plays hockey and he's  very competitive.  There are days I think C is a saint for putting up with Bubby ( M) because he's not a very graceful loser. Anyway, I digress.   I was in  period dress,hoops and bonnet and all the trimmings.  No pockets for my work keys.  We packed up, I changed back to modern clothing, we went home. That was Wednesday. TODAY, Friday, I went into work ( kids are now at Dad's house down the street.)  Guess who couldn't find their keys?  I emptied out my purse. I turned it inside out, I checked all the places I leave them at home then i went to work. I looked on my desk, I looked in  my desk, I looked under my desk. I looked in my  period boots. I looked in  bags of popcorn, I looked in the bathroom,I looked in the  school house, I looked in the Dulaney house, I looked in the storage closet. I called my daughter Robin at her dad's house to see if she remembered where I put them.  I looked all over in my car. I DID find a styrofoam clamshell  with moldy food in it under my driver's seat.  I think it was from  the last time Gerry ( my fiance) was here in Texas. so that would be Thanksgiving.  yuck.  No keys.   oh Henry, what did you do with them?!   Finally, I decided that I would do some housework since Gerry missed his connecting flight in San Francisco.  Snow in Edmonton, storms in SF so  no  connection in SF.  ( This happens to him almost every time he flies. I think the airlines do it on purpose.)  I decided to repurpose an old shoe bag that hung over my  closet door. It was too weak to  hold my shoes so I am now using it in the laundry room for  vacuum attachments and  winter  gloves and hats.  yay!  I was looking for nails to  nail it up with and couldn't find any in the  junk drawer. Yes, Henry likes hammers and nails too.  I went into the garage to look on the shelves for stray nails. Lo and Behold what was laying right in the basket with all the gardening gloves?!  yes!  my keys! oh Henry!