Too Good To Keep It Quiet

As I was racing through the aisles at Costco a few weeks ago with all my kids riding on/hanging onto the cart in some life-threatening (or, at least, toe/foot-threatening) way, we stumbled upon the coveted "snack lady." This time, she was handing out tiny helpings of frozen deliciousness: Icees - the boys new favorite frozen treat.

All three of my boys gobbled theirs down in no time and I had to keep "circling the block" to "happen" upon this poor little old lady who was so slowly and methodically cutting them up into tiny, bite-sized pieces and even more slowly arranging the individual bites into a nice little arrangement on her tray before she'd let anyone touch them.

I tried to avoid her evil eye and ease her annoyance at us for taking so many of her little creations of art, by picking up two boxes of what she was promoting, making sure she saw me put them in the cart, amidst cheers from my kids. It's not every day mom actually buys the yummy treat they ask for!

These are loaded with sugar I'm sure, and the bright colors dye my boys tongues and lips green, red, and, worst of all, blue, but they are a fun and refreshing treat on these hot summer days. They can get them themselves and open them themselves. Other than the permission part, it is a mom's-help-free snack!

The bad news is Jack. He also loves these things but isn't quite so good at eating them. They are too cold on his teeth, so he never bites them, just licks and licks until they are melting all over him. He hasn't quite gotten the squeezing technique down either, so he just spills it all over himself, drops it out of the wrapper, and picks it up with his hands, melting the terribly bright juice all over his hands, arms, face, clothes, and anything in a 3 foot radius.

So we now try to sneak a snack without Jack knowing. It is a difficult thing to attempt. Poor little guy... I'm not trying to deprive him, but I do hate that mess!

Yesterday, the big boys successfully snagged one for themselves out of the freezer, and used their super secret spy moves to smuggle it outside to eat it before Jack was any wiser. I did my part by keeping him occupied with something else, and the mission was going down smoothly. Ben finished his, snuck back in, threw his garbage away. So far so good. But then Mitchell came in a few minutes later, waving his empty wrapper at me, saying, "Look mom! I finished mine without letting Jack see me even once!" Jack took one look at that wrapper, dropped what he was doing, and ran to the freezer, shouting, "Icee! Icee! Pees! Pees!"

Ah shucks... Mitchell just has such a hard time keeping good things secret! Even this time, when he was trying, he still couldn't keep from letting Jack in on it. He will do the same thing any time he gets something Ben doesn't get. He will go out of his way to find Ben wherever he is and either show him what he got or tell him all about it. It really is impossible to just give something to Mitchell. It's just too good for him to keep it quiet.

A Girl Could Get Used To This

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.  

My Inner Vandal Surfaces

I'm not sure why or when exactly this started, but the boys and I have been on a mission to find wet cement.  Why?  I should think it obvious - we want to touch it, of course!  We find pictures or initials written on sidewalks all over our neighborhood and beyond, and each time we see one, we have to stop, read it, study it, talk about it, then excitedly revise our plans of making our own someday based on what we did or did not like about the last one.

So we have really been on the look-out for a patch of wet cement.  You wouldn't think it would be too difficult, given that everywhere we look lately, there is a construction project going on.  We have two old houses torn down and new ones going up within view of our living room window - and those are just the ones we can see without going anywhere!  There are countless road projects going on within walking distance as well as a giant grocery store slowly rising out of a once bare lot a block away.  Even with all this construction going on though, the timing really has to be perfect, doesn't it?  You can just wait around for a cement truck to drive by, follow it, watch the cement pour, then walk up and say, "Excuse me, we'd like to draw here."

Well, last night, the stars all aligned and I found my patch of wet cement!  It could not have been more perfect!  Good thing I missed my early morning run and had to do it in the evening, or I would never have seen the men smoothing out a section of sidewalk less than a block from my front door!  As I ran by, I smiled and gave them a nod and tried to study their work as quickly and innocently as possible, all the while thinking, "I have to make good time tonight so I can get home before this dries and before Matt puts those boys to bed!"

I have to say, I did make pretty good time.  Nothing like quickly drying cement to get those feet moving!  The moment I walked in the door, I got the boys' shoes on them and explained that we had a secret mission to attend to and we needed to be quick and quiet.  Mitchell's eyes got wide and he said, "Are we going outside in our jammies in the dark?"  I think maybe that was the best part for him - he had just about passed out on the couch before I got home, so the idea of doing something normally not done and the fact that I was so animated and excited myself really got him hopping - literally!

I didn't tell them where we were going or what we were doing, only that it was a secret mission and that we had to be sneaky and quiet.  How perfect for us that it was dark and there wasn't crowds of people milling about!  When we got to the wet spot and they saw the caution cones set up, it suddenly dawned on Ben what we were up to and he said, "Mom!  It's wet cement!  We found some finally!"  That is exactly how I felt too!

We got close, scoped out the scene, made sure no one was coming, then bent down and pressed our hands into the cold, wet cement.  It was awesome.  We finally left our mark in the neighborhood and it is right down the street where we can see it every day!  Now, if we could just buy the brand new house that is being built there, everything would fall into place!