Well, I could write a hundred posts on this topic, but the situation at hand is: they lose things and are terribly creative about it. Imagine that you live in an idyllic world which doesn't include a toddler and you can't find your cell phone. It could really only be a limited number of places; your purse, in the car, a coat pocket, in the couch cushions. Places like that.
With a toddler, the number of places your missing cell phone (or keys, or anything else that is really important) could be expands exponentially. They pick up some item of interest and escape with it. When they spot some fun location in your house they shove it in there and wander off.
My son likes to cram things in the garbage can and say "bye bye". Sometimes I notice and sometimes I don't. Items rescued from the trash: dustpan and brush, legos, cat food dish (more than once). Items not rescued from the trash: I shudder to think.
He also regularly sticks things behind the grate in our gas fireplace. Items I found the last three times I removed the grate just in case: spatula (two), puzzle pieces (horse and goat), pretzel rod (half eaten),
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, comb shaped like octopus.
My cell phone could be ANYWHERE!!! I'll give you a minute to let the enormity of that statement sink in. I'm sure you have never lost something and then stumbled across it only to say, "Oh! How happy I am to have found my favorite widget in the toilet/ the diaper pail/ the stove broiler/ behind a bush in my neighbor's yard." With a toddler these are very real possibilities. Things could be behind books in your bookcase, or in a drawer you never open (say, the one full of exercise clothes). My phone could be in a shoe at the back of my closet, or in the cat litter box. The options are endless and terrifying.
