Outsmarted?

It's Sunday morning and I hear my beautiful boy stirring in his room, stretching before tackling the day, full speed ahead. I lay in bed, peck my husband's cheek with a whisper of a kiss, and scurry out of our bedroom, closing the door silently behind me. I crawl into my stretching son's bed for some cuddles, preparing him softly for the declaration I am about to proclaim.

"You know," I say as I sheepishly scurry around the issue, "Your van Gogh art project is due on Monday. You've had all weekend to work on it and today is Sunday, so, guess what? I know you've got your grand plans for the day marinating in your mind but the moment your little feet hit the ground from off this bed, you will, without argument, finish your van Gogh. Got it?" After attempts to use the Sabbath as an excuse from work, my son nods in defeat or so I think and I leave to go downstairs to see what the fridge has in store for our Sunday breakfast.

The kitchen is already beaming with brightness. I open the fridge and spot corn mush (seriously, don't knock it 'til you try it - YUM!). OK, at least I have a plan so when Super Hubby emerges from his slumber I can get down to feeding my clan. In the meantime, I plop down at the kitchen table, examining my son's latest creation, LEGO Heroica. He's taken 2 of the Heroica sets and combined them to make 1 game out of them all. We haven't played, yet, but the game becomes my ally in the end.

I hear thump, thump, thump coming down the stairs at a slow and steady pace. Too lazy-morning-Sunday to get up from my chair and feed my curiosity (plus, I know what happened to the cat), I let the answers unfold naturally. Thump, thump.

Here comes my son, my love, using pillows like ice skates to get around. I'd like to point out that these pillow cases are vintage 1970's Star Wars, priceless, from Super Hubby's childhood, and nearly threadless after this stunt! "You said my feet had to touch the ground before I had to finish my art project and this does not count. My feet have not touched the ground since I went to bed last night," my son spews out like a Sunday gospel sermon. I just stared at him, thankful Super Hubby was sleeping proof there is a God and not witnessing his vintage 1970's Star Wars pillow cases withering away with each push and glide.

OK, the kid had me. He really had me. Then, I pulled out the oldest trick in the book, one that can only be used by an adult because it requires calmness, patience, and bit of the old "redirection" action. If you have kids, then I know you've used this tactic. Your three-year old takes a dive off the monkey bars, howling at the top of their developing lungs, and you "redirect" their attention to the passing ice cream truck or the pretty fluffy clouds and all of a sudden, the tears dry up and you're shelling out $3 for a sno-cone from a long-haired hippie driving around in a freezer on wheels. Well, if "redirection" works on younger kids, could it still apply to older kids? Worth a shot because I was not going to be outsmarted by this smarty pants at least he's an offspring so I'm proud.

I found calmness, I put on patience, and I invited my all-too-proud-of-himself son to have a seat at the table with me and offered to play his new LEGO Heroica game with him. With each roll of the dice I calmly sat, enjoying the game, relaxed like a cheetah ready to pounce, playing my piece to the best of my ability. Then, the door of opportunity fell wide open; a LEGO piece fell to the floor thank you gravity, clink, clink, clink. My son, engrossed in the game, without realizing, got up from the table, placing those precious feet directly onto the floor, to pick up the dropped LEGO piece this comes from extensive training, friends. That was it, GAME OVER...the outsmarted outsmarts - woo-hoo! I agreed to finish the LEGO game, but it was van Gogh and oil pastels for the next 10 minutes. Yeah, you read that right. All that drama and it only took a total of 10 minutes to finish the art project. Well, it made for good blog fodder so I can't complain.


Note: To avoid the silent treatment from my son after this post, I would like to point out that I am rather proud of his resourcefulness and ingenuity. It'll take him places one day.


Final note: The van Gogh art project really turned out to be spectacular!