Lollipop, lollipop!

We are a little obsessed with lollipops in the Costello house these days. This is in large part because of swimming. They are each rewarded at the end of their lesson with a Dum-dum lollipop and also bring some along as it can help to smooth any tiredness and crankiness after the lesson or in the car ride home. Things have escalated a bit, however, because Connor, as he often does, has charmed his teacher so he's now authorized to take 3 lollipops after the lesson. Jamie, of course, will not be shortchanged so inevitably he gets an extra one too.

Last week, however, Sarah noticed something odd. We keep the swim bag, which has a bunch of lollipops at all times, in the hall closet, near the boys room. When she opened the bag one day there were some empty wrappers and she hadn't remembered leaving any in there. She didn't think too much of it though and certainly wasn't thinking about it at all that night when, since I was at basketball, she was fighting the get-Connor-to-sleep battle on her own. For about an hour Connor had been talking, getting up to ask questions, go to the potty, do about anything but stay in bed. Jamie had long since fallen asleep, of course. Finally at about 9 it got quiet and Sarah went to look in on him. She was not completely surprised to find, however, that Connor was not in bed. She looked around the room and didn't see him. She next checked our room, which is logical because one night not too long ago, she came into find him there relaxed on the bed quietly watching TV. But this time no Connor. Now she started to get nervous and searched all over the house. She was about to really panic when she walked by the closet and saw a pair of blue eyes peeking out from between the coats. There was our little angel happily sucking away on a lollipop. This was almost exactly the point at which I got home, finding Sarah trying hard not to laugh but also having to get over having been really relieved to find him, and not a little bit exasperated. So I told Connor to go to bed which he dutifully did plopping the half-eaten Dum-dum directly into the swim bag, which now contained several more empty wrappers. Two mysteries solved.

It's all just a sign of how different from each other the boys are. Jamie could never be that sneaky. In the first place, he wouldn't be interested in getting out of bed if it didn't involve us. Secondly, he could just never sustain it for that long. He's such a good citizen, he'd come clean after a minute. Connor, on the other hand, would have kept this going precisely as long as he'd wanted to, then come out only to ask us to put his blanket over him.