Like most moms of small children, I took the liberty of purchasing gifts for the boys to give to MM for Father’s Day.  One day last week, Chatterer told me he was making a monkey at school for MM for Father’s Day.  I explained that I had also purchased a very nice gift for Chatterer and LBoaM to give to MM.  I told him it was a watch box for MM so MM would stop misplacing his watches.  I told Chatterer it was a secret until Sunday.

Fast forward to Saturday.  MM, Chatterer and LBoaM are playing an improvised game similar to volleyball with an inflatable football (think beach ball in the shape of a football.)  MM has a couple of pocket watches in display cases on the mantel over the fireplace.  Being a mom, I suggested he might want to put them away.  To which Chatterer said:

“But Mommy, you bought him that box to keep all of his watches in!  He should use that.”

Lesson: Never tell a 4-year old a secret.  He’s past the age of forgetting things after 24 hours.  At least I didn’t tell Chatterer about the OTHER gift.

So, you’ve likely already read about Mother’s Day early morning surprises below.  Mother’s Day at our house was anything but relaxing.  MM and the boys let me sleep in until about 9 a.m.  MM needed to mow the lawn, so I threw on some clothes and took the boys to the park.  Chatterer made a friend there named Vince and had a great time, especially when the water feature started to work.  Oh, to be four years old and think that it’s ok to run around in your underwear in the water feature.  LBoaM wanted precisely nothing to do with the water, though, and by the time it turned on was very tired.  Rather than trying to get C out of the water, I plopped L in the stroller to watch.  He enjoyed watching his brother act silly in the water for about another half hour before C came over and said “I’m done.”  Fortunately, I’d brought extra clothes for everyone, so C changed his underwear and we walked home.

After that, it was time for Mother’s Day brunch at our favorite local eatery.  Unfortunately, it took them 45 minutes to get our food and they were out of their signature special for the day, which was something I’d really looked forward to having.  Fortunately, they did manage to get C his usual cheese pizza instead of forcing him to eat something new (Heaven forbid!).  It truly turned into a circus, though, when first L and then C both had bathroom emergencies… just as the food arrived.  This happens so often that the sealed travel wipes in L’s diaper bag were dry.  I made do with Wet Ones, though.  MM took care of C’s issues.  Overall, though, brunch was good.

MM and I were both looking forward to some down time during nap time.  By now it’s 3 o’clock, both boys are down for naptime, and MM heads out to the-worst-place-in-the-world-that-we-both-hate-but-they’re-the-only-ones-that-carry-pre-sliced-apples-that-don’t-go-bad-after-two-days.  I snuggle down under my Mother’s Day gift (big person sized softest blanket ever… Inna and Anissa, you know what I mean!) to read for a little while and maybe doze off.  For a grand total of half an hour.  C wakes up a little more than an hour after he started his nap.  He wasn’t really ready to be awake, so he cuddled with me for another 20 minutes, until MM came home.  Then he was ready to go outside in the wading pool to play.

While MM was gone, I decided I’d like a glass of water with ice.  I opened the freezer to find the ice bin filled with about half an inch of water and the ice was wet.  Thought: “This isn’t good.”  Time passed.  When MM came home, I told him about it.  He said he’d noticed it earlier.  I told him I’d turned down the temperature.  Time passes.

The food in the freezer is defrosting.  The food in the refrigerator is getting warmer and warmer.  Yes, it’s true: the refrigerator is broken.  It seems to be blowing the air in the refrigerator around, but not making any effort to keep the air cold.  Enter the unexpected $250 expenditure:  MM heads to Home Depot to pick up a freezer and we move all of the truly perishable stuff to the little refrigerator we have from when MM lived in a closet studio apartment in San Diego.

Heck, at least both the boys slept well last night.  Seriously, though, it was good to spend time with the boys and MM.  The boys seemed to have a great day, and, after all, isn’t that what matters most?