I am both glad and embarrassed that both of my boys still wholeheartedly believe in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny. Or at least both of them used to wholeheartedly believe.
Duane and I stayed up late last night filling plastic eggs and Easter baskets. We have to make sure each boy has the same number of eggs and the same egg innards. We hide the eggs on different levels of the house and make sure each egg has either an R or a W on it so there is no confusion.
It was well after 11:00 when we were hiding the eggs. Duane took care of hiding Wesley's eggs and I hid Ryan's. When I finished, I did a double check and discovered that one of the eggs I hid had a W on it - which messed the whole count up. I took the W egg to Duane and we started searching for the missing R egg. After several minutes of not finding any, Duane checked the egg I had handed back to him.
"This has an R on it," he said, laughing.
I figured I was just tired, so I took the egg back, hid it again and went to bed.
This morning as Ryan was busily searching for his egg, he found an egg with a W on it.
"Why did the Easter Bunny give me a W egg?" he asked.
"Maybe we were one of the last houses and the Easter Bunny was getting tired and made a mistake," I answered. I wasn't about to throw that bunny under the proverbial bus.
Ryan dutifully took the egg downstairs and handed it to his brother. Wesley took the egg, turned it over to open it and noticed that, while it had a W on one side, it had an R on the opposite one! That explained so much!
"Um...what's going on with this?" Wesley asked.
I had to think fast.
"Maybe the Easter Bunny wanted you to share that one," I said, praying it was an egg that held candy and not one of the coupons that the Easter Bunny brings.
The boys opened the egg and, sure enough, there was candy inside. One piece of candy. Luckily Ryan was in a generous mood and snapped that chocolate bunny in half so they could share it, just as the Easter Bunny intended.
I figured the "crisis" had been adverted, but it was a pretty amusing story and I decided to share it with my mom when we stopped back by her house this evening. I told her the whole story, then went outside where Duane and the boys were. Or at least, where I thought Duane and the boys were. As I headed towards the door, I saw that Ryan had been sitting very quietly in the steps - definitely within earshot of where I had been talking to Grandma. My mom and I exchanged panicked looks, then I collected Ryan and headed home.
When we got home, I took Ryan upstairs to my bedroom for a talk.
"So, Ryan. Did you hear what I was telling Grandma?"
"Yes."
Great. "Do you know what that means?"
Ryan thought for a moment. "Yes. It means that you hid the Easter Eggs."
"Do you have anything you want to ask me?" I asked, fully preparing myself to have to admit that the Easter Bunny isn't real.
"Yes," Ryan answered. Oh boy, here it comes. "Why did you blame it on the Easter Bunny when you were the one who was so tired and mixed up the eggs?"
"You're right. I should have said I was the one who mixed them up." And yes, I am perfectly aware that didn't really answer the question. "Anything else you want to ask me?"
"Nope."
"And you don't need to tell your brother about this conversation, okay?"
"Okay, Mom. Can I go play Skylanders now?"
So I pretty much blew it for my youngest kid. The good news is that he doesn't seem traumatized by it at all. In fact, while I think I completely spilled the (jelly) beans, I'm not sure Ryan has really processed it all. Is it bad that part of me is thinking "well, maybe that means I won't have to be quite so secretive next year?"
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