The Lunchbox and Pumpkin Saga

I am tired today from all of the activity we had this week. I did not really leave the house except for a grocery store trip, but keeping two little ones yesterday wore me out.
Tucker is hilarious. He came home today, in his usual way, through Jake's backyard. I can hear the two of them talking as soon as they get off of the bus and into the woods. Their conversations crack me up. Evidently the little girl from behind Jake's house was trying to follow them home today. I know this because the first thing I heard was Tucker saying, "Go home now! You're not supposed to follow us!" So much for being a Casanova.
He and Jake emerged from the woods looking around Jake's yard forming their plan to get around Chester, the manic German Shepherd that is tied to his leash on a wire run. Tucker said, "Plan B is to get around Chester." Jake said, " Plan B? We have to get through plan A first, and THAT is to get around Chester." I watched them from the deck as usual, listening to their conversation about how much homework each of them had to do and the time it would take before they could play outside. They told each other good bye, and Tucker walked across the little wooden bridge that lays across the creek that runs in between our houses. He came running up the steps to our deck yelling, "Mommy!" and then his happy face went sad. I asked him why he was sad and he said, " I lost my lunch box today, someone took it from my peg in the coat room and I will never be able to take my lunch again!!" He looked up at me with his big blue eyes, and the sadness in them was too much to take. I started laughing and he immediately got offended. I told him that it would be okay, that his name was written all over it and who ever took it would see that and bring it back to school tomorrow. To that he replied," But they won't know who I am." The mind of a 6 year old runs dark. He actually thinks that someone in his class of 19 kids would not know who he was. When in fact, almost every kid in his school seems to know his name, and he doesn't remember any one's name. I am confident that the lunchbox will return tomorrow. I have an extra one to send with him in the meantime.
For some reason, he then turned his attention to the pumpkin that is still on the deck from when he brought it home from school last Thursday. He looked at me with the most serious face and said the following, " We need to plant this pumpkin! I have seeds in here that will grow, and we need to plant it now. Look at that garden back there mommy. You and Daddy have not taken advantage of it in a long time. We could grow our own food you know? And that fence around it, that is redikelious (his pronunciation) daddy really needs to fix it, it is worn out! What is happening around here?" As he was giving me this tirade, his hands were on his hips and he was pointing and gesturing just like I do when I am giving him a lecture. I started laughing and this time he didn't seem to mind. He told me, "I am going to plant this pumpkin today. Look at that sunlight, we need to take advantage of it now. Redikelious mommy, just redikelious." I told him to go ahead and I would watch him. He picked up the pumpkin and walked off the deck toward the back of the yard. He got half way there before he turned around and came back. Sitting the pumpkin on the railing he looked at me, all 6 years of him and said, "Well, I think this is something that I need daddy to help me with. So, I will just leave the pumpkin here until he gets home. Let's go inside, this sun is making me hot."

Life with kids, is so much fun. I have no idea what I laughed about before they were born!