Thief in the night

Have you seen these?



They have become the bain of my existence. Charlie is OBSESSED with them. They are called Bakugan. The have managed to replace Pokemon as the coolest thing on the playground. They start as a ball. When they are put on anything metal, a little magnet inside clicks the whole ball open into some sort of character. LIke the red guy above.

Charlie saves his money for them. He trades with his friends for them. He sleeps with them and asks for nothing else for Christmas. He will hunt obsessively all over the house if he can't find one. And when one breaks, well, you can imagine the devastation.

Knowing his love of all things Bakugan, and being the smart mother I am (you'll see later why this is actually NOT true)I purchased a huge Bakugan set at Costco. This was going to be the ultimate surprise. It had everything needed for the Bakugan oficianado. I was so excited because I knew what the look on his face would be Christmas morning.

Well, not being as smart as I thought I was, I left it in the way back of the 12 passenger van on the floor behind the last of the seats. Charlie doesn't sit back there. And I was worried that if I left it in the garage he would go hunting for Christmas presents, which he has been known to do. So what better place than right under his nose, right? WRONG!!

Somehow, while I was running in somewhere, he ended up in the trunk. And spotted the Bakugan set of every little boy's dream. He was excited, I was downright super duper annoyed with myself. I told him as gently as I could that he had found his Christmas present and so it would have to go back. (A cardinal rule in my house, if you find your gift before the big day, you will not get it.)

But I reminded him that he could ask Santa for it, and maybe if he was lucky, Santa would bring it for him. See, I had a back up plan so save that oh so sad little face from bursting into tears. Well....if you know Charlie, you know that was soo not a good enough answer once he had seen the goodies.

He kept asking me for it over and over and over and over again. (I could fill a paragraph of over and overs). I said no over and over and over. Reminding him over and over and over that he could ask Santa for it. But he continued to reason that I should just give it to him since he already saw it and "MOM, what if Santa DOESN'T give it to me? What if MOm?!" I should have know then that something very bad was going to happen. Silly me.

So I locked the car and figured I would find a place to hide it while he was at school the next day. We all went to bed, end of story? Not even remotely.

I woke up around 12:30 to do something that I seem to do a lot more now in my old age, pee. I immediately sensed that something wasn't right. It felt too cold in the house. I hestitantly walked down the stairs to find the source of the cold. What I saw unnerved me quite a bit. My front door was wide open. (Insert appropriate gasps and oh no's! here)

But instead of worrying that a burglar was in my house or one of the children had finally escaped, I immediately thought of Charlie and a very large Bakugan set out in the van. (Isn't it funny how you always know?)

I had heard him wandering around after we were all in bed, but he does that a lot, so I didn't think much of it. But as my mind put two and two together I did some investigating. So out to the car I went. It was unlocked. And in the back seat, I found this...

Yes, that is the opened box. So with heavy heart I made my way up to Charlie's room. And I found this......along with my keys on the floor of his bedroom.

What did you do?you ask. Did you beat him? Wake him up and yell at him? Write him a strongly worded letter about his disobedience and blatant disregard for authority? No. I did none of those things. I just quietly gathered everything up, hid them and went back to bed.

When Charlie awoke in the morning I acted as if nothing had happened. I watched with twisted pleasure as he hunted around the house. I kept asking "are you looking for something Charlie?"

"No", he would say, and continue to search. This continued all morning. I'm not sure if he thought it was a dream or if he was losing his mind. I finally decided to help him in his fruitless search.

"Charlie?" I asked. "Is there something you want to tell me?"

Stunned silence, sheepish look. "Here it comes," I thought.

"No", he said.
Okey dokey. I stood up and continued the morning routine, waiting for him to need to get it off his chest. Finally, he came to me as I was getting Henry ready.

"Mom, you know what I did, huh?"

"Yes, Charlie"

"Can you give it to me now Mom?"

"No Charlie"

"WHAT!!!????"

So ensued a conversation of how disappointed I was, how he thought it was all my fault, how I couldn't believe he would be so sneaky, how he thought he couldn't help it.

So now, he has to ask Santa for something else, because I'm telling Santa that Charlie can't have Bakugan's for Christmas. It's sad really. Sad that my son is so smart, clever and completely diabolical at age 6. And the saddest of all?

That I thought to take pictures of his shenanigans at 12:30 in the morning.

I wonder where he gets his obsessive personality from? Go figure.