Surprise...

The other day, I picked Li'l Empress up from Kindergarten and headed over to the church offices to take care of cutting the cards for our Chore Chart. On the secretary's desk there is a little candy bowl, always filled with tempting little packages of sweet minty yumminess. I'm convinced that it is the primary reason any of my gang ever willingly joins me when I head to the office to do work of any kind.

Anyway, as is her custom, Li'l Empress waited oh, about 45 seconds before asking (ever so politely and expectantly) if she could please have a mint. This time, I said "not now, maybe later." I went on to explain that it would be so nice if once in while she DIDN'T ask, but instead thought about waiting for ME to ask HER. Maybe if she would wait once in a while, I would get the pleasure of surprising her or blessing her with OFFERING it to her before she made it known that she wanted it. (Heh. AS IF I ever ever ever wonder if she wants one!). She nodded quickly and gave me a face. But as I had laid the ground rules down earlier about how to behave while Uncle Paul and the others were working, she quietly (and wisely) gave me one last look and turned around to play with the stash of toys.

So, on Friday, we were back at the office to print and fold and stuff the weekly bulletin. I settled her on the floor with her little snacky lunch, the toys and her chocolate milk. I could see her eyeing the candy bowl but just pretended I was too busy with my own tasks to notice. After her lunch was about 3/4 of the way to being done, she became a little more obvious. Looking longer. Getting up to walk over and peer into the dish close up. Really studying it. I was having a hard time keeping my composure.

After she finished, she cleaned up her lunch stuff and started playing on the floor. I was folding and stuffing the bulletin by now and she knew we were going to be leaving soon....

"Ummm, Mommy, ummmm, Mommy?"

"Yes, Li'l Empress?"

"Ummmm, Mommy?"  and she pointed emphatically in the general direction of the candy dish. Silently.

"What, Li'l Empress? Did you need something?"

"Ummmm, Mommy? Ummm, I'm not going to ask you for a ...." pointing even more emphatically, to the point of lifting off her little hiney and stretching her whole body into the point.

"What? What aren't you going to ask me for?" I asked oh, so innocently. Heh.

"I'm not going to ask you for a mint," she shook her head very solemnly.

"Oh, good, Li'l Empress. Thank you for remembering our talk the other day and obeying me about the mints."

"Yeah. I 'membered. And I'm going to wait for you to suhprize me. 'K? You are gonna suhprize me, right?"

Sigh. "Yes, Li'l Empress. Would you like a mint now that we are ready to leave?"

"YEAH! SURE! THANKS! I SO EXCITED! I GOT A MINT! YAY! I GOT A MINT!"

Sigh. ...Surprise...