Sis and Bud have a Playbmobil cabin complete with little Swiss Family Robinson with animal rescue gear. There are dozens of little pieces, tools in a box, eggs in a nest, even a bandage for the fawn's leg. And they are all teensy-eensy, itsy-bitsy. I never had Playmobil as a child (never knew anything but Fisher Price "Little People" existed--they were more elaborate and interesting then). Mama didn't have any either, but she coveted it and was very excited when the kids got their set for Christmas from Aunt Banana and Uncle Soccer.
The set makes me tense. There are all these little animals--birds, squirrels, mice, and hedgehogs. Two adorable hedgehogs, the mommy and the baby. And they would both fit inside a thimble . I love those litte hedgehogs, love how Sis calls them the mommy and baby hedgehogs and plays with them. And am totally, absolutely stressed out that she's going to lose them. Because she plays with them all the time, they end up all over the place--in a sock (she was trying to duplicate Jan Brett's The Hat but with a sock that all the animals crawled into. Clever.), in the cabinets of her dollhouse kitchen furniture, riding in the Diego rescue vehicle--and they are going to get separated and lost. I find myself constantly checking to see if we know where those hedgehogs are, to ask her where she put them. Do I care where the squirrels are? No. Do I check up on any of her dozens of bigger plastic animals? No. Something about those darned hedgehogs. I just know we'll both be upset when they get lost. And I do think it's just a matter of time. If she didn't love them so much, I'd just stash them away somewhere safe, for later. But really, isn't playing with them the point? Even if I drives me to distraction, like today when the mommy hedgehog was missing for more than an hour. I think I cared more than she did, and then realized perhaps I shouldn't get her worked up about it.
Besides, if they get lost, surely we can find them on eBay?! Maybe I should go buy a backup set just in case, even if I have to get the whole darned cabin. This is nuts.
They have to learn that things do get lost, especially if not looked after. Try having a tidy up session each 2 hours along with a roll call, just like school! Another thing is that they should learn to look carefully for the lost toy or whatever; some people find it hard to realise that something is lost because it is not in the right place, therefore it is where it could not possibly be.
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