The Card That Saved Them

When the boys got home from school Friday,  Dracen went to his room and shut the door. Now, I've been the mom of the Dracenator plenty long enough to know that this could mean some serious trouble and possible destruction of a permanent structure so I poked my head in there and asked what he was doing.  


He was obviously making a card out of construction paper that he quickly hid behind his back as he jerked his head up and replied, "Nothing!"   Aww, he's making me a card for Mother's Day. I shut the door back and went on about my business.  


My "business" at the time consisted of sorting through the candy in the Easter baskets that were still occupying way too much space in my kitchen.  I looked up to see Dracen toting one of the baskets full of candy down the hallway.  


I stopped him and told him to bring that back because I was trying to sort through all that and put the baskets away.  He was acting very sneaky and then I realized he was trying to find a few pieces to put in the envelope with my card he had made me.  Because a few seconds earlier he had been pillaging through the cabinet where I keep things such as envelopes. 


What a precious little angel.  


I had to remind myself of the existence of that "secret" card all weekend in order to restrain myself from losing all self control with the "precious little angel", and his brother too.  


They gave me a big fat cactus with porcupine quills Saturday night and then Sunday morning I got a card they had bought and both signed and the hummingbird feeder I had actually gotten for myself when Charlie and I were at Lowe's Wednesday. 


I tried to act surprised when I unwrapped it by exercising my superb acting skills but Dracen just looked at me like I was insane and said, "but you picked it out!"   Charlie gave me an amused smile and said, "I told him."  


We finally made it out the door for Sunday School (that we were late for) and there it was sitting in a pot beside the garage.  A magnolia tree!  I love magnolia trees and have been wanting one forever.  I hugged them both, gave them a kiss on the head and told them thank you.  


But still....I had not received my homemade card from the Dracenator.  I had been sure that was what he was doing Friday afternoon.  So when we got back from church, after Charlie left to go take his mom out to lunch, and as I was trying to get everything together to take lunch to my mom, I just flat out asked him...


"Hey Dray, weren't you making a card the other day?" to which he sheepishly replied, "yeah".


"Well, who was it for?" 


He proceeded to tell me that it indeed was for me and when I asked why he hadn't given it to me yet, he said "because you'll laugh."  


"Laugh?!  Are you kidding me?  I've been looking forward to this all weekend.  Please give it to me!"   


In one small envelope was a shiny black and white stone.  "Oh, how pretty! Where you'd get this?"  He shrugged his shoulders and said, "I dunno."   "Well, I love it!"  


The other contained the priceless orange construction paper card (that opens backwards), a small pack of M&M's, Sweet-Tarts,  a fun-size Snickers, a pull 'n' peel Twizzler and a miniature pack of sour jelly beans.  


The boy knows his mama.


But what he probably doesn't know is that that backwards opening Mother's Day card quite possibly saved his life (and his brother's too) moments later when they so thoughtlessly ran to the garage and proceeded to scream and fight over who was going to sit where in the car, as I was making my second trip to the car with the food/gift for my mom.  


Dracen allegedly hit Devin in the back of the head with his booster seat but of course he denied all wrongdoing in the matter as he continued to shout over his brother's accusations in order to plead his case.  The boy will never back down from defending his station which will most likely serve him well at some time in his life.  


But NOT on Mother's Day when he's just popped his brother in the head with an inanimate object whether on purpose or accidentally!


I semi-snapped.  


And by "semi-snapped" I mean I got their attention to the point that there was complete and utter silence on the 14 minute drive to my mother's house but did so without physically harming another living being or destroying any valuable object in the process.


So all in all, I'd say my Mother's Day was a success.  For all parties involved.