P's Day

Because there are only a few weeks of school remaining, Ms. Jennifer at the preschool assigned each child one more snack day. Those children who have Summer birthdays (7 of the 12 children in their class) are allowed to celebrate with a special class snack. Our children were assigned three consecutive Thursdays, so Daddy & I were thrilled about the opportunity to honor each of the children individually.

P was the first to be honored. Today was his day. He requested "pwain white cupcakes with pwain white fwosting, no spwinkles and a colorful P" Easy enough! Or so I thought.

I think I have mentioned before that I am not the most domestic chic. I decided to just order a dozen cupcakes from the supermarket bakery and keep it simple. Unfortunately, my order for plain white cupcakes with colorful P's was misunderstood. When I went to pick up the treats on the way to school they gave me a dozen of the ugliest cupcakes I have ever seen. The bakers had airbrushed my 'pwain white cupcake fwosting' with primary colors. It had all run together and looked kind of brown and purple.

I knew P would either love the rainbow cupcakes or (more than likely) fall completely apart that they were not at all what he had requested. Because this was intended to be his special day, I did not want to take that chance. With only 30 minutes to spare until the party, I scrambled to recover. I frantically called a sweet friend from the baking aisle for advice. When she offered to meet me at my house to help correct the cupcake fiasco I swallowed my pride and grabbed hold of the lifeline she was offering.

After careful evaluation of the airbrushed, rainbow cupcakes, I decided they were really not salvageable. I purchased another dozen with white frosting (and sprinkles). Back in my kitchen, Laurie and I set to work slicing off the sprinkle-covered frosting and reworking what remained. We then scoured my pantry for something suitable to make a 'colorful P' before finding mini M & Ms leftover from Easter. Voila! The end result looked great (and even homemade!)

Daddy was able to escape from the hospital for 20 minutes. I made it to P's special snack on time and P exclaimed with joy when he saw the resurrected cupcakes! "Deese are my favorite. You knowed just what a like!" A success! Suddenly all the hassle was worth every second. My boy felt special and loved. And his Mommy learned she needed to start sucking it up and baking her own cupcakes more often!

While I am on the subject of P, I cannot help but share a couple of other entertaining moments I had with him today. When we were out for dinner P complained that his tummy was really hurting, so we went to the bathroom. As he was trying to go #2 he said, "Mommy, did you hear dat? It was my poop sayin' 'I don't want to come out. I jus' wanna stay here and make your tummy hurt some mo-wa!" No, son. I admit, I did not hear that!

Then tonight at bedtime, R insisted on tucking P in for me. This was the first time they have ever done this. I was misty at the sweetness of watching R go through our nighttime routine.
First he sang, "Good night, P. Good night, P. Good night, P. It's time to go to sleep."
Then he leaned in and went through the routine I repeat to each of the children every night.
"lots of kisses" (Then he kissed all over P's cheeks.)
"one last snuggle" (he leaned in for Eskimo kisses)
"one last tickle" (as he tickled his tummy and giggled)
"one last foot kisses" (more giggles)
"one last butterfly kiss" (they will die that I am telling this story when they are tough teen aged boys)
"one last I love you"
"one last kiss" (right on the lips)
As R climbed out of bed with a proud grin on his face, P smiled widely and said, "Sweet R. He's a sweet R."

It was seriously one of the tenderest moments I have had in quite some time.
Then I took over and asked P what he wanted to pray about. There was a loud sound of a record player scratching in my head as he replied, "That all the stwangers that I don't know will go to the firey place."
"WHAT? Why would you say that?"
""Cause I am a-fwaid they are goin' to get me."
Oh boy! I definitely have job security for the next 15 years or so!