“We Eat Scotch Tape for Lunch” and GIFTS

“We eat scotch tape for lunch” I remarked to the quizzled local school-supplies store lady. She had been a bit curious as to way I was buying scotch tape AGAIN. I buy rolls and rolls of it. I should buy stock in the company already....
The truth is, Ricki overindulges in her scotch tape usage as consistently as the sun rising and setting. One of Ricki’s favorite pastimes (as I have written about before, HERE) is to wrap “gifts” of paper (she MAY throw in a drawing or two), which she precedes to top off with rolls and rolls of tape around and around the package. No indiscrete, well-hidden tape closure for her....
Finally the other day I was annoyed enough with the lack of scotch tape (when I needed it), that I sat Ricki down for a talk. Not that I haven’t conferred with her about this in the past. I have. But once or twice is rarely enough for her (how many times to repeat something before it sinks in can vary widely....), so I reverberated my request: No “gifts” of paper for friends. (No. Lo. Neytt. Nada....) And, amazingly, she hasn’t done it for a few days. But on Monday, when I went to the bookstore with Ricki in tow, she suddenly appeared with a bag in her hand. “Here, I picked out 4 gifts for me”, she said, showing me the four wrapped books within. I could see that they were not professionally wrapped, that the storeowner had “wrapped” them knowing that they were necessarily being purchased. In the end, after unwrapping them all, we discarded three and kept one.
But what I can see from all this is that Ricki wants to receive gifts. I buy her many things, even calling them “gifts”, but usually they are NOT wrapped. Maybe if Ricki gets more gifts (wrapped ones) , she will feel less of a need to wrap up her imaginary ones? I’ll try it and we’ll see. (Not more gifts, just more WRAPPED ones...)