A Happy Reunion

So about two years ago, I was getting ready for a new baby to live at our house and was trying to turn the guest bedroom into a nursery. I was having Michael move the adult furniture out to make room for a crib, changing table, and rocking recliner. What Michael and I didn't realize, was that Isabelle had her eye on a certain piece of furniture in that room. When I was young, my dad made Mari and I these cute oak cabinets to put all of our treasures in. He made the doors to lock with a little key and built shelves inside. I have had the cabinet in every house I've lived in. When we got to this house, we had it in the guest room. As it sat in the hall waiting for a new place in our house, Isabelle started throwing a temper tantrum about how she wanted something in her room. I asked her to explain her fit. She wouldn't indicate what it was she wanted exactly but said something like she always wanted a special thing and I hadn't delivered this special thing up to this point in her life. This fit went on for a few days, meanwhile the little oak cabinet sat in the hall right in front of her bedroom door, eluding her apparently. Finally, as we got ready to relocate it, she started to cry. I asked her what she was sad about and it opened this flood gate of expressing unfulfilled childhood expectations. She sobbed, "Mommy, I just want dat.....dat.....um....dat fing dat I can keep my fings in." She pointed to the cabinet and went on, "I just want a fing with a door and a tiny key to hold all my secrets."
So, the cabinet went in her room and right away she went to work gathering her treasures about her room: cards she got in the mail from Grandma Karen, necklaces her daddy bought her at the beach, a random nondenominational bible Grandma Nan gave her (notwithstanding its ambiguous translation, it's little and pink--thus a treasure), rocks and acorns from the yard, magazines from Papa Prisbrey, a doll from Grandma Johnson, bracelets and a jewelry box from Grandma Karen, room key cards her dad collects for her while he travels for work, various items she has "borrowed" from her mom's makeup, etc. She knows exactly where the key is, and she never loses it. When she got a little play kitchen for Christmas, we moved the cabinet out to make room. That lasted about 4 weeks. She would reminisce about the good ol days when she had had it in her room and kept all her 'secrets' in it. Finally, we decided she needed it back in her quarters, and I have come to the realization that the full circle of life has happened. I now know how kids go about "inheriting" their parents stuff. Isabelle will no doubt take this cabinet to every house she lives in from now on. And I am happy to let her do just that.

This is Isabelle rearranging her room to make space for her cabinet with the doors and tiny key, organizing her 4-year-old treasures. It was a happy reunion that lasted well over 2 hours. And her secrets are safe once more.