Cabinet posts

As President Elect Obama names people to cabinet positions, I'd like to nominate Elisabeth for Trash Inspector General. You can't get anything by that kid.

A few days ago, Doug tried to trash the toy that the dentist gave her for behaving. It was a cardboard cutout elephant with a little stand and 4 rings. You tried to toss the rings around the elephant's nose. Sounds cute enough, but if you don't get rid of these sorts of thing on a regular basis, you'll end up having to get extracted from your home by the police, as though you were a hoarder. So, Doug tried to save us from this fate by putting the elephant in the trash. He tried to bury it, but apparently failed. Elisabeth went to throw away a candy wrapper and was taken aback by the horror she saw - the elephant in the trash! "Daddy! I wan't to KEEP the elephant! Why did you throw it away???"

Two days later, the cleaning lady came. After she left, Elisabeth said, "Daddy! Mercedes threw away some of my play money." When asked how she knew this, she replied, "I saw it in the trash bag that she took outside." So Doug, being a much better father than I will ever be a mother, dug through the trash and sure enough found a fake $20 in a bag that had been thrown out. As an aside, we suspect that Charlotte is the culprit who threw the $20 in the trash, she loves to throw things away. Luckily we don't worry about it too much, obviously Elisabeth will catch anything that makes its way into the trash can mistakenly. Or purposely, as the case may be.