Hide the Dolphin

My oldest daughter and I have an ongoing game ...

HIDE THE DOLPHIN!

Somehow, somewhere, at some point in time she acquired this tiny little toy dolphin. By tiny, I mean it's not even an inch long. I'm not even sure exactly when, or how, the game started. But it goes like this:

I hide the dolphin.

You find the dolphin.

Now it's your turn to hide the dolphin.

Then I find the dolphin.

And we keep going like that.

But there's a catch ...

We have no idea when the other one is going to do this!

For example ...

I open up my nightstand drawer to get a book, and there sits the little dolphin. So I hang on to it, wait for a day, or two, or 12, and then I hide the dolphin in her jewelry box. She may not open her jewelry box for a week. But eventually she does, finds the dolphin, and then starts plotting her next hiding place so I can discover the dolphin again. This has been going on for a couple of years now I think. Then all of a sudden the little dolphin stopped turning up. I assumed that one of us had hidden it so well that the other one never found it and the hider forgot where she hid it.

Well imagine my surprise a couple of weeks ago when I sat down at my computer and opened up the case for my glasses and there sat the little dolphin! I was so surprised. Then I started getting a whiff of mint. Hmm, this is odd. So I ask my oldest where in the world did dolphin turn up. She says, "remember Mom, you hid him in the cap of my toothpaste tube?" Oh yeah ... I had totally forgotten. She opened up her toothpaste, there was dolphin peeking out from the goo of vanilla-mint Crest and so she squeezes it to pop him out and he ends up getting sucked into the tube. She had to wait until the tube was empty to get him out. No wonder he smelled minty fresh.

So I hung on to dolphin for a few days and then I hid him in the back pocket of her new Build-A-Bear dog's blue jeans. I know she found it. So now I wait ...

... where will little dolphin turn up next?

I look forward to finding him!