An Evening With A Five Year Old

Once again, I found myself frantically shopping for a birthday present on the 'eve' of a birthday. Every time one rolls around, I swear to myself and everyone around me that I WILL NOT wait till the last minute to do my birthday shopping next time. It always end up that I don't get what I want or I just can't find the very thing I thought would be perfect or so cute a couple weeks earlier. But here I am, at 10:30 at night cooking cupcakes for tomorrow which I might add are not turning out as planned and am frantically trying to figure out a creative way to turn them into cute, picture-worthy first birthday cupcakes so Kara is not adding that to the list of things she needs to work out as an adult. I, also am needing to wrap the presents I purchased about an hour ago.

Ryan, our five year old has been feeling a little left out (he's my emotional child) and he loves to go with me so I invited him to come along with me to go birthday shopping. He was ecstatic. Off to he went, like a flash, to get his shoes. I, then, found him waiting by the car door very patiently. As we were zipping down the road to get to one of our destinations, I hear this coming from the back seat: I wish we were riding in the 'red' car, I wish we were riding in the 'red' car, I wish we were riding in the 'red' car.

As a bit of a side note, let me just explain to you how very much Ryan (5) and Aaron (3) love the 'zurban' (Aaron's name for it). If we should happen to be going somewhere, those two boys jump up very enthusiastically and are all for 'going' but if they should hear that we are taking the 'green' car (minivan), they drag their feet and say things like, "why does Dad always have to take the red car" or "I wish we were riding in the red car". Let me say this also...it's not just because of the DVD player. It's quite fun to ride around watching your favorite movie but it's also fun riding around in the 'zurban'. You can see things from a different view than you can in a smaller vehicle. It's like looking down from a mountain to the scenic view below compared to being on top of a dirt pile in the middle of a baseball diamond looking up at the crowds. It's just a very big blessing to have such a vehicle. Oh, did I mention, the energy it emits to one behind the wheel??? I highly recommend it (see, it's not just for the kids!).

Getting back to Ryan saying to himself over and over again that he wished he was in the red car. After he had said that for a few times, I heard him say this....my temperature is getting hot. Of course, the mother in me jumped into full gear. I thought maybe he wasn't feeling good which is never good, in my opinion, to be on the road with a child that could potentially throw-up in your car. But he pipes up with this: I'm hot and mad! I took the bite and asked him why he was so hot and mad. The answer is because he wants to be in the red car which at that moment was in Port Huron with his Father. I never knew we'd be having the 'war of the red car' and that the children would be involved in the fight. They can be very persuasive which does work to my advantage.....**cackle** It's all my secret plan and it's working....**cackle***