Jo Cool Mama

My four-year-old son, Sam, was walking around the house with a baggie of cereal. Shoving his hand into the baggie and stuffing as much as he could into his mouth. He was doing this for a while, then all of a sudden he looks up at his father and said with mouth full of cereal, “Daddy, can I eat this cereal?”

A couple days later, I was writing an e-mail and sinfully chowing down on Girl Scout cookies when Sam came up to me to see what I was doing. He reached into the bag and shoved a cookie into his mouth. As he reached in for a second, and mouth full of food, he looked up at me and asked, “Mommy, can I have a cookie?”

Each time it brought laughter and a response of, “Yeah Sam, go ahead.” I did tell him that he was already eating a cookie, but he simply looked at me without understanding. He shoved the second cookie into his mouth and was able to get out a, “What?” That prompted my response of, “Yeah Sam, go ahead.” He nodded his head in approval and “ummm-ummed” at me before taking off down the hall to his room.

Wouldn’t that be great if adults could get away with the stuff kids do? Driving a new car off the lot; window down, “Can I have this car for free?” and continue driving off. Yeah, go ahead! Walk into the bank; walk around to the back; open the vault and take as much money as you can hold; walk out, “Can I have this money?” Yeah, go ahead! I suppose if Sam came to me with a knife and started cutting up the couch, then asked, “Mommy, can I reupholster the couch?” I might have a few choice words to express other than, “Yeah Sam, go ahead.” For now, if eating is going to be his silly asking after the fact - then I am okay with it.

What kid, in any given time period, did not enjoy playing more with the box “it” came in than the toy itself? The creator of the box, I’m sure, had no idea that he created the greatest toy ever! This toy will never go out of style - NEVER! Parents (us too) are stupid for spending thousands of dollars each year on fancy toys, when a simple delivery from the UPS person will make a kid the happiest creature on the planet Earth. This is common knowledge, and all parents know this - doesn’t mean we won’t stop spending thousands of dollars on the fancy toys… Go figure.

Grandma had bought a few clothing items from Disney and had them sent out. When we got them, Sam was so excited - he hurried us to open the box, reached in grabbed the items and glanced at each one with the comment, “Oh, that’s nice.” Then threw it to the side. Once the box was emptied Sam was like lighting climbing into the box! Jack needed to share in the excitement of the box as well, and the brothers played for a while within the Disney box of joy.