The Creative Listener

Yesterday Abbey helped me wrap Tanis' birthday presents on the floor of my bedroom. I had to get up and go do something when we were done and I firmly told her to leave the presents alone and she happily told me that she would. She even brought the presents into the kitchen and placed them, ever so carefully, on the counter. I was so proud of her! For quite some time she's had this uncontrollable urge to unwrap presents - any present. It doesn't matter who it belongs to or what it may be, she has a fettish for ripping paper off of a package. I thought we'd made huge strides in this area and was very proud of her. I forgot about her great accomplishment, however, as the excitement of the evening wore on and we proceeded to sing to Tanis, blow out candles and then open presents. My peace and contentment were shattered, though, when at 11:30 last night I finally made it into my bedroom to crash for the night. I came into the room and found that 2 rolls of brand new wrapping paper had been unrolled and strewn around the room. Darn that little goofball! Oh well, at least she listened to me and didn't unwrap anything. Next time I'll have to be a little more specific when I leave a room with Abbey still in it.