compensation

002

Tuesday morning Jackson woke up with a cookie craving. I have no idea what brought it on, all I know is that he started asking for chocolate chip cookies at 6 AM and didn’t let up until I agreed to make some at 10:30. What can I say? He does puppy dog begging very well, complete with hands clasped together over his heart and “Please? Please? Oh Please? Oh Please?

Fine. I succumb to your cuteness!

Took me less than two minutes to realize we didn’t have a single chocolate chip in the house. No flour, either. And okay, no sugar. I’ve been told most people keep these things as staples in their pantry. I’m not one of those most people. I did, however, in the recesses of dark cabinet, find a sugar cookie mix. And since I’m never without eggs and butter, I threw those cookies together and popped them in the oven.

While they were cooking I ran a mile and a half. It’s all about justification. Amen.

Then I took the cookies out and put them on the kitchen island to cool. I went to take a shower. When I came back in the kitchen the island was empty. The baking sheet had two crumbs on it. Two. That was all. I stood there in stunned disbelief for all of ten seconds before I hypothesized on the most likely culprit. Then I called Jackson in the kitchen and showed him the empty pan. Suspicion was confirmed when his eyes got as big as saucers and he said “What happened to all the cookies?”

See, Jackson is a very honest child, always fesses up to wrongdoings, and has never in his life lifted something off the baking sheet. For that reason I didn’t think twice about leaving those cookies unattended. Unfortunately I also didn’t think about Jon.

So as Jackson started to cry over the missing cookies I realized I hadn’t seen or heard from Jonathan at all. Quick perusal of the house led me to a two-year-old shaped lump hiding under the blankets on his bed. And if the crumbs all over his face and shirt weren’t proof enough, he smelled positively divine. Like one would imagine after consuming fifteen cookies.

Anyway. I tried to make things better by giving Jackson the only other sweet thing I had in the house—pretzel M&Ms—but I had lingering guilt over the cookie incident (even though I had nothing to do with eating them) so yesterday I made real cookies. Ones that required me to dig in the pantry and unearth the dormant baking soda. They also contained bananas, oatmeal, chocolate chips, and pecans. Jackson was in heaven.

I guarded the pan with my life.

Comments

Marian Frizzell said…
this just made my morning. All of it.
Caleb said…
Jackie, I'm so glad you decided to put this up on the blog. You tell the story so well, inspiring such vivid images of every detail. Thanks babe. Love you and the boys so much.