About 5 weeks ago, when our local warehouse store, Costo, started putting out its Christmas displays, the girls and I came upon a large display of 18" ceramic international dolls: lovely colorful costumes, delicate features and reasonably realistic proportions (so as not to build a strange sense of body un-confidence in the girls).
I had an idea that this would be a great gift for Christmas, so we lingered and I took note of which doll each girl liked best. I would have Husband return later, sans children, to purchase them and stash them away -- which he did.
Knowing that the girls were going to be running errands with him at some point today, he snuck outside this morning to carefully move the cargo from the back of his Explorer to the garage (where no hot-house flower with any dignity would dare to lurk). Husband is clever, subtle and determined...but he's met his match with Dumpling.
As he crossed the garage with the dolls in a bag so that only the bottom of one barely showed, he spotted Dumpling looking at him.
Lower.
Lower.
Yes...her cartoon-perfect smile was shining at him through the doggy door flap which she was holding up out of the way. She spotted the green cloth of the doll she liked best -- weeks ago, mind you -- and said, "Daddy? What's that?"
"Uh."
"Daddy? What is that? What's that green stuff?"
"None of..."
"Is that the doll I wanted from Costco?! Is it?!"
I'm guessing that here Husband tried with all his might to put on his firm-Daddy-mean-face to throw her off the scent. Hopefully it worked well enough to save the surprise -- at least for her sisters.
7 comments:
I got caught once when my younger daughter spied her rollerblades in a bag in my closet. It's not like they were in plain sight, but I obviously was not sneaky enough. Needless to say, she wasn't surprised, but neither was she pleased because they weren't the exact color she wanted. Oh well.
I've been caught a time or two also. And so if you say that what they think they see is not really what it is, it's a lie, so is that a sin? :)
I guess so, Connie...which is why Husband didn't answer expect to say it wasn't for her to know (with firm-Daddy-mean face). Surely she knows, but hopefully she's scared to tell her sisters.
Oh that's so disappointing for parents!! But...I was a snooper when I was a child. I wanted to know RIGHT NOW what I was going to get later. My parents had to hide things at the office so I wouldn't find them. And still...even then... sometimes I'd find them...
When I was 5, my father was working out of town. We were very short on funds and my mother spend the few weeks up to my sixth birthday making me a doll and shopping very frugally for my birthday. She told me that the doll was for cousin so and so and made up other little "fibs" to explain which presents were for who. My birthday is in the fall and we have lots of other family with similar birthdays and Christmas being around the corner, I beleived her. I was so surprised on my birthday when I opened all the presents to find that they were mine. Every precious one. They weren't pricy at all. The doll was made of old fabric scraps and I played with her for years. I loved that even though my mom was put in such an impossible situation, she still tried her best to keep the mystery there.
Hopefully, Dumpling will at least keep the secret for her sisters. Maybe you can say you changed your mind and took it back. Kids really want things to be a secret. It's more fun that way.
Oops, I didn't realize my "comment" turned into a blog post. Sorry.
Too Funny! Have fun as she gets older. Sisters have trouble keeping secrets. HEEHEE!!!
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