Allergic Addictions

Riley has always loved string. When he was just a baby I made him a fleece blanket that had ties all around the edges. He loved that blanket and still does. It sleeps with him every night. Because of the ties there were occasionally frayed edges that dangled little bits of string. When he was younger, Riley wasn't strong enough to pull them hard enough to get the string to detach, but he pulled until the piece of string was long enough to curl around his pacifier or across his top lip. He just rubbed and rubbed pieces of string across his face.

Now all the strings from that blanket have been pulled off and lost one by one. But Riley's attachment to string hasn't diminished. He now will pull strings from anything he can. For example, the pillow covers on my living room pillows have this rough, slightly shaggy texture, from which he can grab hold of a small piece of the fabric and pull it out to produce a short piece of string. He's done this so much the pillows have become threadbare in several spots.

This summer, instead of buying new shorts for my kids, I took all their school pants that had holes in them, cut them off, and voila! Shorts! As you probably know, once cut off jeans are washed they really fray. I trimmed most of the strings, but Riley found the ones I didn't. And through repeated washings the shorts have continued to fray, and Riley has continued to find the strings.

The other day the kids were sitting on the floor watching TV when Riley decided that his own shorts were void of string. To amend this issue he reached over to his sister's shorts and began pulling the strings from her shorts. She laughed and shouted playfully, "Riley, what are you doing? Leave my shorts alone."

Riley retorted, "I can't help it! I'm allergic to string!"

Allergic?

Later that week upon watching the fireworks Riley spouted, "I'm allergic to fireworks!"

Allergic?

Still later that week after seeing some people outside our apartment, "I'm allergic to neighbors!"

Allergic?

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

As I was telling my sister-in-law about this story, she asked him, "What else are you allergic to?"

Riley paused to consider the question, and then replied in a slow passionate voice, "I'm allergic to chocolate."

Personally, I think Riley is addicted to being crazy.