Dumpster Diving

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Life with a special needs child involves things I never thought imaginable.  Levi loves to collect certain things.  I've talked about it before.  Ropes, string, balloons, gum, dish towels, and newspaper ads/coupons.

A typical fridge with children/grandchildren/nieces/nephews/neighborhood vagabonds is covered in darling artwork that to the adult eye may look like scribbles and hand prints but to the child who is the next Van Gogh it is a master piece.

Not my fridge.  My fridge is covered in the mailed weekly grocery store ads that have been painstakingly gone over time and time again and each item that is wanted is circled and talked about and each newspaper is carried around in hand for a day or so until it is posted on the fridge along with the coupons that come in the mail for food items.  You do NOT remove these items from the fridge.  I don't care if you need the magnet to put something else up on the fridge, say, another darling Native's artwork or an important reminder like a wedding announcement.  Go find another magnet or better yet, go find another fridge!  What ever you do, do NOT break this rule.

Yesterday we went to the local city parade.  We were sitting minding our own business watching the colorful floats go by with Miss Mary Cow Dairy and her promenade go by and other like floats.  As we sat and watched, random people would walk by and hand out coupons to local businesses.  Levi was in heaven!  His little hands full of coupons!  Who cares about the local high school bands marching by looking half wilted in the heat blowing their horns!  Coupons!!  

Levi came home and........... put them on the fridge.  This morning I was busily cleaning the kitchen that looks like one of the floats from the parade blew up in my kitchen when I came across some papers I needed to put on the fridge for later use.  Without thinking.............  I BROKE THE RULE!  I grabbed a magnet, tossed the coupon for some local restaurant in the garbage and GASP!  Levi saw me.

I tried to brush it off as no big deal and told him other coupons would come in the mail and to go and play and yadda yadda yadda.  He would't let it go.  Is the coupon going to the dump?  Do we need to go to another parade to get another coupon?  How could I let the coupon go to the dump?  

This went on for about five minutes.  I continued to clean the kitchen and then I heard it.  Noooooooo!  Not the dreaded sniffle!!!  NOOOOOOOooooooooo!  I look over and the tears are flowing and Levi is standing there asking me how could I and in my mind I'm cursing the people handing out coupons at the parade as I tromp outside to once again............  dig through the garbage to find the coupon that I have thoughtlessly thrown away.  I can't tell you how many times I have dug through my disgusting garbage for this child because what is trash to me is treasure to him that he can't live without.

I walk back into the house with a plastic smile on my face and hand Levi back his coupon.  He takes it from me and with a genuine smile on his tear streaked face he walks over to the fridge, studies it for a few minutes trying to decide just where it should go because the place where it originally was apparently isn't good enough now.  With the eye of a master artist he moves some other coupons around and finds the perfect place for the saved from the dumpster coupon and places it smack dab at eye level in the middle of the fridge.  With a satisfied grin Levi turns and walks away.  Once again order has been established in his world.  

I also step back and take a look at the fridge.  A fridge that to the untrained eye would look like coupons, newspaper ads, scribbles, and hand prints  but to this mommy, it totally looks like a Renoir on my fridge.  A masterpeace (pun intended).