"elementary my dear watson" is really an overstatement

a couple of mysteries have recently presented themselves, so we've been doing some sleuthing lately.

case #1: the case of the tortured book
one of q's favorite books is "peekaboo kisses." you're hesitant i know, but trust me on this one - give it a chance and you won't be able to put it down. a true page turner.

anyway the gist is, you open little flaps to reveal furry puppies or fluffy kittens all dying to give you a kiss (goodbye epic novels, hello baby books) and the climax comes when you get to the mouse (spoiler alert ahead)

peekaboo i see...

squeaky mouse kisses!! (i can recite this thing in my sleep)

and, get this, when you hit his little belly, he squeaks! until one sad day - it was probably overcast and rainy out - when we got to the mouse and pressed the belly, it was completely silent. no noises to be heard. not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. (sorry, i couldn't resist.) 

i flipped the page over and to my utter horror saw THIS!

someone ripped the squeaker right out of the book! now, i know you're thinking "whoa - where do you even start to narrow down the list of suspects in a case like this?" but in truth, possibilities weren't as extensive as you might think. there were two potential culprits:

they both look innocent enough, but i've witnessed first-hand the destruction these guys can do to inanimate objects.

first, we'll look at teddy. sweet innocent teddy. the boy assures me on a regular basis that this pooch can do no wrong. but that's just because teddy conveniently waits for the boy to leave to start his mass destruction of helpless toys. take for example:

a poor little stuffed dog (that started off as quincy's to make the matter worse) ripped away from his own nose. all from the paws of sweet innocent teddy. 

and if a toy has a squeaker in it - like this baseball thingy - forget about it. teddy is like a squeaker-seeking missile when it comes to finding squeakers and getting to them in as violent way as possible... i never in a million years thought i'd use the word "squeaker" so much in one sentence.  

and then let's not forget about this little episode of toy devastation...

in other words, i wouldn't put it past teddy to rip the squeaker out of a defenseless children's book. 

on the other hand, while i've never once seen milo rip a squeaker out of a toy, i have seen him demolish paper bags, take toys away from quincy on a regular basis and just be plain annoying at whatever cost. plus, he always comes in to finish teddy's dirty work (conveniently usually right as the boy gets home so milo looks like the evil one all the time). teddy will take the squeaker out of a toy, but leave the stuffing unharmed. milo sniffs out toy stuffing like...well, a dog... on the hunt. 

look at that - he's even got stuffing on his chin as if we weren't completely convinced of his guilt.

so, it's a toss up. it's hard to take this case any further because neither suspects are wiling to stand trial to defend their innocence. which sadly means, justice may never be served for "peekaboo kisses."


case #2: the case of the traveling flamingo
as if losing sleep over that isn't enough, now we've got a mysterious pink plastic flamingo floating around our block!

it showed up one day out of the blue standing proudly in the field across the street from our house. a few days later, it suddenly moved to our next-door neighbor's front yard. so, when it landed itself in our yard a few days after that, i naturally assumed my neighbor had stuck it there.

(the boy pretending to not be worried at all about these shenanigans) 

she whole-heartedly denied it though and swore she had nothing to do with it being both in her yard and our yard. so, we have a savvy flamingo transporter on the loose

sigh, how will any of these mysteries every be solved?

i am happy to report however that one case can be closed. i finally found the easter egg that milo hid two weeks ago! ironically, he hid it in my neighbor's yard... which is why i wouldn't put it past her to plant a plastic flamingo in our yard... i bet if we look long enough, we'll find a lonely squeaker without a home buried somewhere over there too