I am grateful that when I walked out of the house this morning without my purse and the door locked behind me that I had also forgotten to lock the back door the last time I went through it. Double forgetfulness, like double negative, is a positive.
I decided to hide a spare key inside Quinn’s play kitchen tea kettle, and then decided I’d make a blog post about it, so I can look it up when I forget where it is hidden. (In omitting the location of the tea kettle so internet villains will not be able to break into our house, I run the risk that I may still not find the hidden key at a future forgetful date.)
I’ve had his tea kettle on the back burner of my mind as a dear object I have been wanting to trace back in time in writing. Though right now it is sometimes better to keep a lid on the memories, there are days, like today, when it feels as comforting as a mug of tea to steep myself in treasured moments from the past.
Quinn’s tea kettle was far and away his favorite play kitchen item, a present for his birthday when he turned two. I would tidy up his kitchen at night and when he would wake up in the morning he would go straight to it, pouring bunny snacks, raisins, and popcorn between the colander, the pot, and the tea kettle. He would finish his evening making dishes such as “people pasta,” simmering all of his wooden people figurines in the tea kettle.
He was in love with having, “berry berry my own tea kettle,” so I sang, “I’m a little teapot” to him, of course. Then, of course, he made me sing it a million times, with the hand motions. Then he modified it to sing to himself, “I’m a little tea kettle.”
It moved with us from that green house where he turned two to our orange house, where he was growing so mature he would request a teabag and make his own tea kettle full of tea to pour himself.
It moved again to the dragon house, and after we cleaned out the playhouse there, his play kitchen was installed, tea kettle and all. By five, he was interested in dinosaurs, chess, and ewoks, and may not have played as much with his kitchen set, but the tea kettle still got played with the most.
When we moved here to dragon house 2.0 and Quinn turned ten, I painted an old computer desk into an outdoor play kitchen for all the children we knew would be attending our upcoming wedding. Quinn approved of using his kitchen stuff, tea kettle included, to furnish the Rainbow Restaurant.
Memories of that week will always make my heart bubble over with joy.
The day started with a little forgetfulness, but ended up with a heart full to the brim and spilling over with gratitude for the memories.
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