That was my friend, I miss him...

Earlier this week, we blew up a bunch of balloons to play with. All but one had been popped until tonight. Joshua was playing with the balloon and his toy pliars, he was trying to pop the balloon by pinching it with his plairs. The balloon popped and he moved on to another activity.

A bit later, he found a piece of the popped balloon, brought it to me with tears in his eyes, asking me if what he was holding was a piece of his balloon. I told him it was. He starts crying uncontrollably, red faced, huge tears, nose running..."He's popped! Why is he popped?" I reminded Joshua that he is the one that popped the balloon with his pliars. He said "I wanted it to be a party game, but it wasn't a party game. Don't throw the pieces away. I want to keep them." Then, he is crying even harder and his speech sounds like a car with a dead battery trying to start as he says "That was my friend. I miss him. He just liked floating around." And over and over again...as soon as I think he has calmed down, he says "He just liked floating around." He did this for a good solid 15 minutes, which is a long time to be crying over a balloon that he popped himself that I can't do anything about!

Some things I will never understand...