After repeating this story while out running this morning, it was suggested that “oh… you should really write this stuff down.” Which made me think: gee, isn’t that why I’ve been blogging again?

The Plan Was…

…simple. Tell Claire that, in order to surprise her mom for Mother’s Day, we would sneak off to the store and buy some flowers. We’d sneak back home, hide the flowers, and wait patiently until Sunday morning, today, to unveil the surprise.

The Reality Was…

…less patient.

Step one? Having primed Claire with the foreknowledge that her and I would be sneaking out of the house later in the day on Saturday — after her dance lesson, after lunch, and after her nap — I attempted to instill in her the utmost importance of secrecy and not letting her mom in on that secret. She grinned, conspiratorially, and in hushed tones ran off to tell her mom:

“Mom, you know what? Dad and me are going to sneak out of the house to buy a present for Sparkle. It’s a secret.”

Alright, so sneaking out of the house with a three-and-a-half year old was never going to be much of a possibility anyhow, but at this rate things were looking bleak.

So, step two? Buying flowers should have been a simple exercise as well, no? I had figured, feeling fairly flush and not having much in the way of gift-giving inspiration anyhow, I’d wander into the florist section of Safeway (actually a decently well-stocked selection for a grocery store) and let Claire pick out whatever she wanted to give her mom. Yes, this could have easily backfired into an ugly, unwelcome and/or expensive basket of something-or-other. But instead, Claire bee-lined immediately to the small potted Mums, and pulled out the plainest, smallest, charlie-browniest potted white flower you’ve ever seen.

Four bucks later, and me feeling like the cheapest husband in the city, a proud little girl was carrying her gift back to the car.

Step three? That would have only required a little patience on Claire’s part. We sneaked the flowers into the front door, hid them behind the curtains and on the windowsill so they could survive the day prior to reveal, and a reminded Claire: it’s a surprise.

A surprise? Yeah. Still a surprise, but had a certain little girl not run immediately upstairs to announce our return and tell her mother that there was something hiding in the living room and she should come find it…. it might have been a surprise. A Mother’s Day surprise. But our cheap little white flower stayed hidden for a total of ten minutes — if that — an excited little girl helping Karin retrieve the gift from where it lurked on the sill.

The Conclusion Was…

…amusing. If not also a little frustrating for dad.