Wednesday, October 31, 2012

“Mom, I know…”

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This year, I’ve seen my ten year old grow leaps and bounds.  I know that there will be times when our kiddos do that, but it seems like ten was a big year for us.  It started on Easter.  Every year, my sweetie and I decided we wouldn’t buy cheapie pre-made baskets for our kiddos and that we’d make our own. 

Our family is HUGE on family traditions so I’d make the baskets and set them outside our front door.  Believe me, our kiddos know the true reason to celebrate Easter and the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, however, it is fun to be able to provide them a gift on that wonderful day as well.  This picture was from 2010.

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A week before Easter this year, my Lil G and I were running errands and he said in the car, “Mom, I know…”  To which I responded, “what?”  Then he dropped the bomb. “I know you’ve been the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy all this time.” 

My heart sank.  Is he mad at me?  Did he feel deceived?  I didn’t know what to expect.  I tried to hold back my tears but it just began to stream down my cheeks.

Softly he said, “I never wanted to tell you because I knew it was special to you and I didn’t want you to feel bad. I see why you do it and the hard work you put into our baskets and it’s special to me too.”

I pulled the car over and we hugged.  I told dad what an amazing child we had and how our very mature and amazing son handled it.  Over the summer as my sweetie and I reflected, we realized he didn’t mention Santa in his news.  Did that mean he still believed?  We decided to let it slide.  Perhaps we still have a little innocence of make believe in our ten year old baby after all!

Then… it happened again.

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“Mom, I know…”  We were heading out to our special date night.  We are starting a new tradition of taking each one of our kiddos on a special date night to get to know each one individually better.  We wanted to make sure to invest one and one time with each of our blessings and my hubby had Lil Dude and it was my turn with Lil G.  “Mom, I know Santa is Daddy.”  “How long have you known?” I responded.  “Over a year.” 

Wow.  That night as we sipped up our Jamba Juice we laughed and giggled over our new little secret.  Lil Dude still believes and Lil G wanted to still have some time enjoying knowing something Lil Dude didn’t. 

Then I recalled Lil G insisting that we go for another ride on the Polar Express this year.  We’ve gone every year since he was 3, but I thought this year we’d skip it (we traveled so much this year, I figured we could bypass it).  However, Lil G insisted we go even if it was on a weeknight and wouldn’t be able to stay the weekend.  I wondered why he insisted since he already knew Santa wasn’t real?  To which he responded, “Mom, it’s a tradition.  It’s OUR tradition and that’s what our family is about.”

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Tuesday, October 9, 2012

When an exciting Family Joy opportunity goes WRONG…

On Saturday, we spent time as a family cleaning up the house and organizing.  The boys worked so hard! So my sweetie and I decided we would pull an awesome prank/reward on them for a great family memory.  I got the idea from the book Building Family Ties with Faith, Love, and Laughter in which I reviewed here.  Here is an excerpt of the book:

“If you have young kids, some of your spontaneous activities will not require much advance planning. Take advantage of that luxury now! Come bedtime, say, ‘Get your PJs on and meet me at the car. We’re going to the drive-through at Krispy Kreme doughnuts.’”

So at about 9pm we helped the boys get ready for bed:

    • Bath/Brush Teeth
    • Pajamas
    • Tucked them in to bed and prayed our bedtime prayer

After that, we were SUPPOSED to just close the door and then open it back up again immediately and yell “Surprise, we are going out for ICE CREAM!”  That was the PLAN.  But somehow, my dear husband didn’t understand the implications of his stalling.  Just when I was about to open the door back up again, he said, “hold on, let me put my shoes on” in which he casually went to get his shoes. THEN he went to throw some thing away.  THEN he wanted to put a different shirt on because we were heading out.  THEN he went to grab a quick drink of water.  Wha?!  I’m standing at the door thinking, Oh my gosh my sweetie is taking sooo long!  I want to do the surprise now!  FINALLY he was ready.  It seemed like only minutes but apparently they were crucial minutes.

I count to three silently and we open the door and yelled, “SURPISE we are going to get some ICE CREAM!”

I looked at what I thought would be giggling excited faces… to find that my two boys screaming in a panic and TERRIFIED!  I wish I could have recorded this. Lil G screamed so hard he started crying.  Lil Dude thought he was getting ROBBED (so he says).  Lil G turned ghost white. They trembling and were shaking.

Oh My Gosh. I messed up.  They apparently were so tired, they were already drifting off when my dear husband decided to stall.  I ran over to hug Lil Dude while my sweetie hugged Lil G. We explained what we were up to.  We wanted to surprise them and take them out for ice cream.  Then we finally got the giggles.  Then Lil Dude said, MOM!  You are CRAZY!

We laughed and got our shoes on and went to get ColdStone.  The boys giggled the whole way there.  I can’t stop laughing. I keep laughing while I am writing this post.  They forgave us and now it’s one of their favorite stories about their crazy mama and daddy.

Friday, October 5, 2012

Foto Friday

When the kiddos are quiet, our mama instincts kick in and we try to figure out where our kids are, right?  So when I couldn’t hear Lil Dude, I went on a hunt to find him.  Where did I find him, you ask?  Sneaking behind the coffee table to READ!  Yes, my Lil Dude loves to read.  So why would he hide to read?  Because he is reading his big brother’s old chapter book.  Lil G LOVES Captain Underpants and has his own collection.  Lil Dude was afraid he’d be in trouble for reading big brother’s book.  Instead Mama was so giddy she had to get her camera.

Here is my forever memory of my second grader reading a fourth grade reading level book!
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