Laughter Is The Best Medicine

Blog? What blog?

Okay, my sincere apologies for being a slacker blogess lately. I have been busy giving birth to a new baby - and no, not a real one. More about that later. Suffice it to say, I may have to change my bio on this blog to say that I'm not only a stay-at-home mom, but I'm also a work-at-home mom. And an insane mom. Because I needed more to do these days.

So back to my funny story of the day. Actually it was yesterday. After school my oldest always comes home and wants a snack. It's like living in a commercial. So she pulls out what's left of her snack from school and starts munching away on Cheez-Its. When she polishes those off she goes for a chocolate cookie.

Since we baked them last week, she's been having one every day when she gets home from school. I figure it's comfort food to go with the comfort zone that she has just re-entered.

My younger daughter then tells her that she should eat some fruit first before she has that cookie. I have good laugh and take full advantage of this sage advice from my younger little lady. I hand my oldest a can of diced peaches and tell her to finish that off first, then she can have the cookie.

In a few seconds my request is taken care of and she starts in on the cookie. While she's eating she browses the pantry for a second or two, turns around, looks at me, still with cookie in-hand, and asks if she can finish her cookie upstairs in her room.

Whaaat? Where did that question come from? And why is she asking me and not just going right on up there? Maybe because I already warned them No Chocolate Crumbs All Over The House.

Then I catch a glimpse of a bag of fruit chews in her other hand, casually hanging very close to being behind her leg, but not quite. And her very hopeful wide open eyes and smile are just casually awaiting my answer.

Then the laughter hits full on. These girls are cracking me up. My goody-two-shoes daughter is trying to be sneaky, but she's basically asking permission first. She wants to eat those fruit chews (in my book they qualify as a sugary snack) and she doesn't want to ask permission since she thinks the answer may be "no" after the cookie. So she instead asks if she can eat up in her room where she will have just accidentally brought that other sugary snack item with her and, gee whiz, she'll have to eat it.

I tell her that she doesn't need to sneak things and that if she just asked, the answer would probably be "yes". Then I tell her no cookies up in her room, she has to stay in the kitchen. She still doesn't want to acknowledge that she was trying to be sneaky, so she goes back to the pantry and this time goes in it, and closes the door behind her.

I reiterate my comment, between my chuckles, about just asking permission for things and not trying to sneak them. Her muffled voice comes through the door and says she just wants to eat her cookie in the pantry, that's all.

Yeah, right.

Next she comes out, cookie crumbs on her face, and with a big expecting smile and those same wide open eyes, she looks at me and asks "Can I go upstairs now?"

Now she could have just come out of there and tore up to her room, shouting a "see ya" along the way. But she didn't. She asked permission. I see a trend here.

So I check her hands without trying to look too suspicious. Nope, they're empty.

"Sure," I say, "go ahead up."

At which point she starts to run, gets about three steps into her sprint and we hear the crinkling noise of the fruit chews bag slipping down her pants.

Here come my giggles again. This time her sister is in on it too. "She has the bag of fruit chewies!" the little rascal exclaims.

"Yup, she sure does," I say, still laughing. I walk over and give my wanna-be sneak a big hug and just laugh with her. She starts laughing too and gives me back a wonderful hug around the middle.

"Anything you want to ask?" I say.

"Can I have them?" she asks.

"Yes, you can have them. But next time, just ask first!! The answer is almost always yes."

I guess I could have been pretty upset with her for trying to be sneaky. And I could read a lot of food issues into it too. But I don't. I know my kids, and there are no food issues. And they also aren't very good at sneaking things. Or lying. Thank goodness.

So I'm glad I got a good laugh out of it instead.