I need my balloon back – so I’m going to get married

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Lizzie (my granddaughter) lost her special butterfly balloon as she was leaving the hospital after getting her tonsils out a couple of months ago.  At first she thought that the angels were borrowing her balloon and she would get it back some day.  Then, she started talking to her grandfather.

Pat (my hubby and Lizzie’s grandfather) came up with this story that her balloon had made it all the way to China and a little boy in China had found her balloon and was keeping it.  Upon that revelation, Lizzie started crying and wailing that she wanted her balloon back and she wanted it back NOW!

“Lizzie, you will need to learn Chinese and write a letter to the little boy and ask for your balloon back.”

“No Grandpa — you need to get it back for me!”

“Well, I did Lizzie and he says that you will have to marry him to get your balloon back.”  (4-year-old children have no concept of irrational stories – so this made perfect sense to Lizzie.)

“I want to get married NOW.  I need my balloon!  Tell him Grandpa!”

“I will let him know Lizzie.”

At this point, Lizzie calmed down and started to talk about her wedding — she would get to wear a white dress and there would be cake and dancing – and her balloon.  We forgot all about the conversation and since her parents weren’t with us at the time – we completely forgot to mention this insane story to them for future reference when Lizzie started talking about it.

Imagine my son-in-law’s surprise when his 4-year-old daughter came up to him yesterday and told him “I’m going to marry a boy from China.  He has my balloon.”  He thought she had gone insane — however, once we explained who had started the story (Grandpa), he knew who the crazy person really was!