The Crow Abides

Our youngest continues to be attracked to shiny things.  He consistenly picks up household items, fiddles with them, and deposits them in his room.  It's a mess in there, and once something goes in, it's quite a while before it resurfaces.  At least, over the years, we've gotten smarter, and when we can't find something, we do look there first.  Usually it's limited to kitchen gadgets and tools.  Can't find the parmesean grater?  Check Theo's radiator.  Looking for a spatula or pliers?  How about his desk?  But his eye seems to be casting a wider net lately, and things don't need to be shiny to disappear.  The other day I was looking for toothpicks.  Couldn't find them anywhere.  But then I ventured through Theo's room to open his curtains, and there, stuck into his rug, was the entire box of toothpicks.  He had made some kind of picket fence down the length of a carpet stripe.  The next day the fence was down, but there was a stick on his floor that was transformed into some kind of homemade mace, with toothpicks poking out from all over.  It actually looked a little deadly.  As I type this, Jon is searching for his phone.  Surely it is somewhere in the nest of our dear crow.