Elephants on parade

Four peaceful little lego elephants ...

... gathering for a lovely chat ...

... until their existence resulted in Pachyderm Pandemonium 2012.

You see, the underlying cause of this conflict is Evey's current love of the movie Dumbo. And therefore all things elephant. (or any other object she names "Dumbo", which has already included a plastic giraffe and a Christmas beanie dog, but not her teenie-tiny elephant, who has been assigned the name "Simba".)

On this day, Evey found four lego elephants and was intensely protective of them. To give you an idea, see the kid in the Red Wings jersey? He was innocently running a train around the track on the table, and every time he came near Evey, she picked all the elephants up in her arms and turned around so he couldn't get them. Then she'd put them back in a circle. Repeat ad infinitum.

So in the midst of this, enter poor Clare (stripey shirt). She wanted to join Evey's game, and picked up one elephant to goof with.

Evey lost her mind. Completely.

Enter gently patient parent Justin, trying to help with Clare. Enter also parent Heather (you may determine my descriptors yourself), trying to help with Evey. After about 5 minutes, Justin convinced Clare to give back the elephant, and I told her I'd help her find another one in the boxes nearby. Evey's elephant needs were sated.

That is, until I found another elephant for Clare. Evey begins mind-loss part 2.

Now, I want to give Clare props here. She offered to give Evey the *5th* elephant, keeping none for herself. But then the poor thing sat there watching Evey play with all 5 elephants for about 15 minutes, wistfully hoping Evey would share. Despite many urgings on my part, Evey would not yield. All 5 elephants would be hers alone.

Eventually, we did have to leave, and a new, epic Evey meltdown commenced. Even saying goodbye, hugging, and kissing each elephant did not help. At least we were in the middle of a museum, where such loud displays wouldn't affect anyone else nearby ...

Poor my Evey. :)