(More than) Fourinarow.net

Today, amid the after-school chaos, the phone rang. I would love to say that all four of my little darlings, upon hearing the phone, froze and became completely silent.

Ummmm.  Yeah.

Instead, I don’t think my children even heard the phone. I mean, how could they have? They were all in the kitchen, yelling and jumping up and down — basically acting like the maniacs they are.

Foolishly, I answered. “Hello?”

“Fjdkalfhgitl sdfdsakf osklda,” was about what I could make out. I asked the person calling to please hold for a minute.

“I am talking on the phone!” I tell my children in my nice but stern other-people-can-hear-me voice. “Please be quiet!”

I went back to the phone and was actually able to have a short conversation with another mother from Jack’s school without hiding out in the garage.

“Whooooohoooooo!” I thought to myself as I hung up. “The kids actually listened to my request and were quiet!”

Seconds later, back into the kitchen they came.  “We’re ready for some popcorn,” they announced.  (I’d promised popcorn for today’s snack.)

I got out the popper and was just about to thank my children for being so good while I was on the phone, when Maria announced that there was popcorn in Luke’s closet.

“What?” I said.

“Jack took that popcorn from the shelf and it’s in Luke’s closet,” Maria said.

“In the blue bucket,” Luke added.

The popcorn in question was some caramel popcorn given to us as a “pre-Christmas” gift.  The “blue bucket” in Luke’s closet is a rubbermaid container full of clothing too small for Luke but still too big for Sam.

Blood pressure rising as I imagined gooey crumbs of popcorn ground into tons of clothes, I went upstairs to investigate.  Thankfully, I simply found the partially eaten bag of popcorn hidden in the “bucket” lying neatly on top of the clothes.  Unable to resist an open treat bag, I helped myself to a small piece.  Ick.  It didn’t taste very good, which probably explains the eager confession.  (Well, that and the chance to stick it to a sibling.)

So while I talked on the phone, my four children (they may have tried to pin it all on Jack, but they all had caramel breath) were hidden away in Luke’s closet with a stolen treat.  Miraculously, there was no mess.  And, they were quiet.  And, I was able to have a relatively sane phone conversation.

The little sneaks definitely took advantage…  but I’d have to say that this time it was worth it.