False Accusations

In my pre-kid life, I never knew that being a mom would be so full of surprises. I didn't imagine that having grimy little hands grab my ears and hair as a goopey yogurt face slopped a messy kiss on my lips could bring me so much joy. I never imagined that a small fever in a little body would keep me up all night with worry. I didn't know that hearing a kid use the bathroom without any prompting would feel me with pure elation, nor did I ever imagine that I would consider myself a broken record on a daily basis. Motherhood is certainly full of surprises. You would think after a decade of being a mom that I would no longer be caught off guard with the things my kids say or do, but this week I was especially humored and surprised by the accusations of Jacob and Alden.

In our house, we love fresh fruit. A particular favorite of mine, Thobe and Jacob are blueberries. I think everyone likes them a lot, but to Jacob, Thobe, and I blueberries are like manna from heaven. When I saw a pint of blueberries at Kroger this week, I was torn. I really wanted some blueberries, but at $3.98 a pint, I was not all that hipped on buying them. My taste buds won out, and I put a pint in the cart. Because of the other blueberry lovers that live in my house, I carefully hid the costly blueberries in the fridge. I knew as soon as they were opened that they would be gone. The day arrived when I pulled them out of the fridge and sprinkled a few on my cereal. Jacob caught me in the act and said, "Oooo, stwaberries! I wike stwaberries." Reluctantly, I sat him up on the bar and let him eat some.

After eating nearly the entire pint, he got down and started to play. I noticed that there might be enough for my cereal the next morning, and quietly put them in the fridge. Several minutes later, Jacob climbed up to the bar and said, "Where are my stwaberries? Where are they?" I asked him what he needed and told him that we don't have any strawberries. He narrowed his sparkly blue eyes and said, "You stole my stwaberries, Mommy. Give me back my stwaberries!" Poor little Jacob has a thief for a mommy.

Alden's accusation made me laugh equally as hard. Our entire neighborhood (and perhaps township) turned on their sprinklers this week; consequently, we have had little to no water pressure. I talked to my neighbor and discovered that we simply need to change our filters and our water pressure would improve. Last night I tried to figure out how to do it, but couldn't so I went upstairs. I soon realized that my kids needed baths before bed, so I told them to go and get in the bathtub. I heard a bunch of commotion, and then the kids came running down stairs. "Mom," they yelled, "We have no water." I had forgotten to turn the water back on when I was trying to change the filter. Trying to solve the problem with all the wisdom of a ten year old, Alden came downstairs and said in a hushed town, "Mom, when is the last time you payed the water bill?" I don't know how he was aware of this, but he did know his stuff. I assured him that I had paid the bill, and he was relieved.

Questions

Hyrum is my most inquisitive kid so far. Alden and Thobe took the world at face value; Hyrum does not. Why did God want me to be a boy, Mom? Why are my eyes brown? Why did Papi marry you? When will Gefil come back alive (Gefil is Michael's grandfather who recently passed away). After a litney of questions, Hyrum often says, "I have a lot of questions, Mom."

His question today really made me laugh. In the middle of a barage of questions, Hyrum asked, "Mom, when are Grandpa and A-Leeta (Hyrum's way of saying abuelita in Spanish) going to have kids?" I usually try not to laugh at his questions, but I just imagined Hyrum being frustrated that his grandparents had failed to produce children for him to play with. I told him that they already had kids. "Really?" he asked. "Where are they?"

"Well," I responded, "Papi is one of Abuelita and Grandpa's kids.

"Oh yeah," he replied, as if he had just remembered. "Who else is Grandpa and A-Leeta's kid?"

I reminded him that his aunt Michelle is also one of their children. He was satisfied with that and wondered if his grandparents had any more kids. I told him that they only had two kids. Hyrum pulled his silly Hyrum face and then said, "Mom when are Grandpa and Aleeta going to have a brother for Papi?"

I need to call my in-laws and tell them that according to Hyrum that they've got some unexpected work to do. Now that Chris is retiring, maybe they'll have the time.