In Pursuit of Trivia

I present for your consideration exhibit A, a picture of a plastic hamburger bun.

And now, exhibit B. Once again, a plastic hamburger bun. 

The same bun, right? Right? WRONG. They are not the same hamburger buns. David has selected a single bun from our expansive plastic bun collection and made it clear that they are most certainly not interchangeable. What difference could it possibly make, you ask? Well, exihibit A is just the right size to fit perfectly on top of a bottle of Oscal and the other is a fraction of a millimeter too large. DUH.

Now, before you turn me over to the authorities for letting my son play with medicine bottles, it was an unopened bottle of calcium supplements, called "pink" by David because of the pink coloring on the label and it was his item of choice all last week. Once David has chosen an item, it is difficult if not impossible to pacify him with anything else. And, of course, the consummate crown to the Oscal cap was a perfectly fitting plastic hamburger bun.

The problem is that David has the extraordinary ability to recall the location of each and every inappropriate item in our house. It would seem that no hiding place or high cabinet is really safe. We still have child safety door handles on some of the doors in our house, but they are certainly not meant for a six year old kid. They remain because they do slow David down, but really only seem to work on my mother, who routinely curses them under her breath when visiting our house.

David has now left his supplements behind. Earlier this week, he reviewed his mental inventory of our household goods and has retrieved the six circular playing pieces (called "circles" in David's vernacular) from the Trivial Pursuit 20^th Anniversary Edition. These are his special items of the week.

Since we do not really have much time for game play in our house, the unopened game had been stored on a shelf in our guest room closet. Evidently, the gold box called to David one day several months ago and he insisted on taking a peek inside. The circles, as well as the pie shaped wedges (not surprisingly called "triangles") have become an important part of his daily life, and by association, a shockingly significant part of mine, as well.

David's remarkable visual recall, however, does not seem to extend to the ability to remember where he has left these favored objects. We are constantly looking for lost items. Or reaching to retrieve something that has rolled under the seat of the car. Or searching the backyard with flashlights after dark. I will try not to reflect on how much time I have spent this past week trying to find the pieces from the Trivial Pursuit game--inconsequential game pieces that are anything but trivial for David.

Author's note: The bun pictured in exhibit A is not really the favored bun. When it came time to take photos, I was not actually able to find the special bun and photographed a different one because, after all, who would know the difference anyway? Seeing all his buns prominently displayed on the table, however, reminded David how much he missed his favorite bun and, of course, he has no recollection of where it may be hiding. So, I am off to hunt for last week's stale bun.