“Ethan, I bought these totes for you to put special stuff in that you don’t necessarily want in your new room, but you don’t want to throw away either. ”
“Ok, like what?”
“Well, like that teddy bear that you got when you were 2 and I guess your GI Joes, those are kinda special to guys aren’t they?”
“Sure. One of the Joes is a mummy now (from a 6th grade project) and the other one… ”
“What about the other one?”
“You cut his head off.”
“I cut his head off!?!??!”
“Remember that time you were getting laundry and you said you couldn’t close my closet door?” Ethan walked over to his closet door to imitate me, frustrated, trying to close his closet door, multiple times. “Remember?”
“Uh, sure.”
“After you left, I opened up the door and Joe’s head rolled out.”
Me: *blink. blink. blink.*
“Yeah, I now refer to it as, OPERATION CLOSET: Joe’s Last Crusade.”
Me: *blink. blink. blink.*
“Uh.. maybe you can keep his boots or dogtags or something… you know as a reminder.” (Yes, this was lame… but what do you say to a boy who’s Joe wasn’t exactly killed in the line of duty?)
“Riiiiiight.”
“Well, I guess Barbie finally got her revenge. I’ll have to tell Kate.”
Of course, Barbie had already exacted her revenge 4 years ago. After a particularly rough “date” with Joe where Ken ended up being held hostage and later… well, he didn’t make it. Someone (and I won’t say who the guilty party was) snuck into Ethan’s room, dressed the Joes in Barbie’s finest ball gowns and…
MADE THEM HAVE A TEA PARTY.
Ethan came home from spending the night at a friend’s house to the Joe’s demonstrating the proper way to take tea… with their little pinkies in the air.
That was the scream heard ’round the world.
Sure wish I had pictures.
