Mommy Time

Last Friday, Eli all of a sudden said he had a great idea, but he couldn't tell me what it was. He adamantly asked me to remind him to tell daddy when he got home. Not knowing what his idea was, I wasn't positive he would be able to remember himself (he comes up with lots of ideas that he later forgets). So, I asked him for a little clue that might help him to remember in case he forgot. He told me that it was a surprise he wanted to get for me and that daddy would have to take him to get it. Saturday afternoon, the kids and I went to Durant, OK for cousins birthday parties, and Johnny stayed home to work and meet with a client. Johnny promised to take him on Sunday after naps. The original plan was they would go and have "boy time" and Zoe and I would stay home and have "girl time". However, about an hour before they left, Eli crawled up in my lap and said, "Mom, I decided we are going to take Zoe with us. That way you can have a little time by yourself with no kids bugging you." In case you haven't noticed this about Eli, he is one of the sweetest boys on the planet and he loves his mommy :)

So, they headed out and I set up the couch for laundry folding and TV watching. They were gone for awhile and Johnny called to say they had left the store, but would be about 30 more minutes. Eli was playing a car bingo game and was missing several items. They were going to drive around for a little while longer and try to find some of them.

When they got home, Eli had a huge smile on his face, but no surprise in his hands. He told me that it was hiding in daddy's car because he still had to do something before he was ready to give it to me. Tuesday afternoon, he got out all his scissors (plain and fancy edged), construction paper, stamps, stickers, markers, crayons, etc. and set up on the kitchen table. He made cards for all four of us. Zoe tore hers in half the second he handed it to her. Luckily, Eli is an understanding big brother and he didn't get too upset. He put mine and Johnny's under our pillows so we could find them at bedtime. Then when Johnny got home from work, which was a little late, he asked him to get my surprise out of the car and to put in under my pillow with the card. I was allowed to look before I went to bed. He got me a package of colored pens. He was so proud of himself and asked me about five times if I loved them. He told me the best part about me being his mom was that he loves me with all his heart and he can buy me things :)
The first picture is the front of the card. It says Mommy and has stamps and pictures of badges. Somewhere, I can't remember, we saw a boy with boyscout badges. He drew them on my card.


The second picture is the back of the card. This is a picture of the four of us.