When was the last time you re-examined an ordinary object? There are so many things that just get cast aside and forgotten. Sadly, they go unexplored, like junk mail that gets thrown away without ever being opened.
Take for example the humble little silica gel pack that comes with every purse or tote bag you buy. Have you ever opened one? If not, why? Is it because the tiny package screams THROW AWAY DO NOT EAT?
Violet came downstairs yesterday with a tiny cup of liquid and asked us to help her "solve the mystery". I smelled it and guessed correctly that it contained soap from our bathroom sink. It also had a gritty substance in the bottom. Violet stirred it with one of the 10,000 striped drinking straws that she keeps stashed about the house and asked us (again) to solve the mystery. Aaron and I looked closer and saw tiny, clear beads amid the grit and soap bubbles.
"Where did these come from Violet?" A tiny bit of panic was hidden in my voice. I imagined gutted beanie babies and snipped costume jewelry.
"It came from the craft room. I opened a little package." Violet was not the least bit concerned, only curious.
I went up to the craft room and found an opened silica gel pack on Vi's desk. She had very neatly cut it with her safety scissors.
After we interrogated our child to make sure she had, in fact, not ingested any silica; we fished some beads out of the cup for a better look.
Mystery solved.
