Sleeping nickels

If I've learned nothing else over the past two years, I've at least come to expect the unexpected...especially when it comes to the imagination of a two-year-old. The other day, Lillian found a nickel on the floor and came running. Here's the dialogue and resulting scene that played out before me:

Lily: It's a dollar!

Me: Nope...that's a nickel.

Lily: A nickel!?!

She proceeded to wrap it up in the swimsuit cover-up she'd been wearing earlier and had since discarded on the floor.

Lily: Nickel's sleeping. Shhhhhh.

She then hands me the bundle containing the nickel to hold.

Me (said quietly to Erik): How long do I have to hold this sleeping nickel?

He was clueless.

I held it for a few minutes and then placed it (ever so gently, of course) on the floor. Once she noticed, she ran over, picked it up, and placed the entire bundle on the blanket she had been meticulously straightening on the floor for her babies to take their naps on.

Lily: Here you go. Nickel's crying. It's alright...

The nickel, cozily wrapped in the bundle, was then double wrapped in the blanket to ensure FULL coverage.

Had this little scenario been played out with a doll or even some sort of stuffed animal, I wouldn't have thought anything of it. But a nickel??? Sometimes I wonder how her little mind works. What about that nickel brought out her maternal instincts and made her want to comfort it? Does she just figure anything left alone and forgotten on the floor must need some sympathy? Did she think its feelings were hurt once it found out it wasn't a dollar as previously suspected? I know if I suddenly found out I wasn't worth as much as I originally thought, I'd be sad, too. Does she know the falling value of a nickel and wanted to ease its pain?

Whatever the reason, that was one cared-for nickel and an amusing 15 minutes. Which, let's face it, is the real reason we have kids.