Thursday, April 12, 2007

The Vanishing Easter Egg

The Monday after Easter Baby Girl was sitting on the sofa with her basket in her lap happily eating jelly beans. I didn't think a child of mine could have such a healthy appreciation for jelly beans, but she was eating bean after bean while ignoring all of the chocolate delights in the basket.
Finally she took notice of the Cadbury Creme Egg taking up valuable jelly bean space in her basket and decided to give it a try.
She'd been working on unwrapping it for quite a few minutes and had it nearly half way open when I left the room. Now, I only stepped out long enough to lay the baby down and hurried right back to supervise as I was a bit nervous about the potential mess of a Cadbury Creme Egg in the hand of a two year old.
When I came back it was gone. The wrapper was there on her lap, but the egg had vanished. The thought occurred to me that she had shoved the whole thing into her mouth but she looked completely normal, no bulging cheeks, no chewing, so that couldn't be it.
I wondered if the dog had taken it but I hadn't heard a "No Whoosh my egg!". That dog can't even look at her while she has a snack without her yelling at him not to take it. In addition to this, the dog plain didn't have it. It is physically impossible for him to fit something that size into his mouth all at once and it would take him at least 5 minutes to eat so that couldn't be it.
I looked in her lap under her blankie but no egg. Likewise it wasn't in her basket, on the floor, or between the couch cushions.
Then she gave a little whimper. Had she shoved the whole egg into her mouth? I asked her, "Did you put the whole thing in your mouth?" Another whimper, this time accompanied by a drizzle of chocolate drool. I ran to the kitchen and fetched a bowl into which she spat the magical vanishing egg. I asked her if she wanted to try eating it with a fork but she declined. I wonder if she'll ever attempt to eat one again.