Kleptomania

Kleptomania: An inability or great difficulty in resisting impulses of stealing. A person with this disorder is compelled to steal things, generally things of little or no value, such as pens, paper clips, small toys or packets of sugar (and may I also add, little pieces of candy from a gumball machine!!)

So you may all be asking yourselves why I just provided you all with the Wikipedia definition of kleptomania. Well let me tell you a little story...

On Wednesday night, I was with my sister Tasha in Frederick, MD and we happened to be near one of those stands in the middle of a mall that has something like 50 different candy machines that you put a quarter into to get a little treat. Abby seemed to be fascinated by all the different colors and shapes so we let her walk around them for a bit while we gabbed. A few seconds later, I noticed that Abby was eating something and also had about 3 or 4 little pieces of chewing gum in her hand. I quickly took them all away, thinking that she had retrieved them from the floor or something similar. We went back to talking and again I noticed Abby had more candies in her hand. By this time, I knew that these were not just stray pieces of candy so after taking them away from her again, we carefully watched to see how she was getting them.

Then we saw the little criminal at work, shoving her little hand up inside the metal door and inside the machine. Her hand was small enough to wiggle its way through the opening and pull out a few selected pieces. I immediately told her no, that she was stealing and that it wasn't nice, but I couldn't help from laughing either. I mean, what an ingenious little girl to figure something like that out so easily. Of course, we don't want our little Abigail to turn into a kleptomaniac or anything, but it was kind of funny.

On a little side note, I am going to be an aunt again!! My sister Tasha and her husband Jeff are expecting their first child in April. I am beyond excited for both of them, but also for myself. This will be my first niece/nephew that I will actually live close enough to visit on a regular basis. I hope that their baby and Abby can grow up to be good friends. Yeah for more babies!!!