Now you see it. Now you don't.

If it's out of sight, it's out of mind. Right?

Take food for example. For Norah & Hazel--but mostly Norah--if they've been enjoying an afternoon snack in their highchairs for a half hour already, and they look as though they're about to burst, we quickly stow away all animal crackers, clementines, raisens, and grapefruit segments so that food slowly shifts out of mind. And it works.

Or, take chapstick. Again, if Norah & Hazel have spotted a couple tubes of this lovely lip hydrant, you allow them both to practice putting it on by themselves, give them a few minutes to relish the time of holding it in their own little hands, then you quickly pry it from their tiny fingers, stick it in your back pocket without them noticing, and try to entice them with a Eric Carle book hoping they completely forget about it since it's out of sight. ask nicely, "Please give mommy the chapstick," in which they both obey, place it in your hand, and you put it back in the drawer, hoping that by keeping it out of sight, it will stay out of their two little minds.


Or, how about all this stuff that's under the desk in my craft room:

Looking at it tends to stir up an undistinguishable restlessness that usually leads me to scrubbing the toilet, munching on a bag of Reese's Pieces, or vacuuming pretty little lines into my carpet.

Little did I know, all I had to do was this:

..and put all that stuff out of sight. And pleasantly out of mind.

I'm not saying that it helped--in the least bit--with the Reese's problem.