About a week ago, Matt and the boys started having secret meetings without me - "no girls allowed" type of thing. They had important plans to discuss and afterwards, secrets to keep from mommy, lest they spoil the surprise. So off Daddy went on a trip for a few days while the boys bravely attempted to keep their secret. I'm pretty sure Mitchell wasn't paying too much attention in the first place while the plans were being made so it was not too difficult for him to keep his thoughts off of it and his mouth shut. Ben, however, was very excited about it and kept wanting to drop hints to me without actually giving the secret away. He'd bring it up at funny times and try to get me to guess what they were planning and then trying to find ways to give me clues without actually giving it away. It was all very cute, I must say.
Matt returned home from his trip late a few nights later, but got up very early the next morning and woke the boys up. Their special plan was to make mommy coffee and breakfast and have it ready by the time she woke up. Well, they of course were not able to accomplish this without waking me, but I did enjoy staying in bed while the smell of coffee and breakfast wafted up to me. I could hear all sorts of whisper laughs and hushed giggles and quiet instructions on how to best crack an egg or how to brew coffee. They were having a great time down there before sunrise. After a while, Mitchell carefully climbed the stairs to my room, bringing a hot cup of coffee to me with a giant smile on his face. He told me to sit up and drink my coffee but don't come downstairs yet! "We aren't quite ready! You just relax with this special coffee! Bye!"
Well, I usually make cereal for breakfast - the clean up is minimal and I have a lot to do in the mornings. But this breakfast was delicious and huge. It was even worth the giant amount of mess that was left covering my kitchen from counter to counter. The boys were so proud of what they had done for me and it was such a fun, early time together for us all.
Since then, the boys have been finding little special things to do for me all on their own. Today was a perfectly cute example of this. Matt took the boys out to the park this afternoon and when they returned, Mitchell and Ben had picked out "beautiful leaves for mommy" that they carefully brought home without smashing them. Matt said it was funny how excited they got when they saw the leaves, came up with the idea that I would love them, and then spent time picking out the best ones to bring home for me. My leaves made it home in one piece, despite their brittleness, were presented to me with much hugging and smiling, and are sitting prettily in my kitchen window. It is times like this that I love being a mommy, especially to my sweet, thoughtful, and loving boys.
