Do the Cookie Dance

I am starting to learn that I should always come home prior to picking up the boys from daycare to make dinner and get the house cleaned up. Because the boys want to eat the second they walk through the door, I find it's easier to have dinner already ready for them. Now that I've learned this, however, I now won't need to put it into practice until August as tomorrow is officially "my" last day of work! I'll probably forget this valuable lesson by the time August rears its ugly head.

Tonight after the boys inhaled their chicken fried rice (I made it), I gave each a cookie. Pure delight. I wonder when we all stop doing the cookie dance when someone gives us a sweet treat. My boys, especially Mason, literally shakes his little bootie when I give him a treat. I'm fairly certain that while I might do the cookie dance in my head when someone gives me a treat, I try to maintain my composure. I wonder how I got from there to here. I remember being a little kid and skipping around the room when my mom would let me have a cookie or even when I'd snatch a cookie without her knowing.

I wonder when we learned not to cry when the treat was "all gone." Tonight when I informed Mason that the cookies were "all gone," he burst into tears. Yes, now when I have a cookie, I might cry inside because it's all over, but again, I have learned, somewhere between my toddler years and my 32nd year, not to cry when the treats are gone.

I'm not complaining. On the contrary. I find something quite precious about this little cookie dance of theirs and how the world is so simple for them that the cookies being gone is their greatest tragedy. I don't want their problems to get bigger and I want them to keep shaking their little tushies when they get are treated to something sweet.