Private screening of "Tangled"

This weekend, William was all about playing his Scooby Doo game one the Wii. He loves watching Scooby Doo, and add in an interactive component and he's all over it. It's actually a pretty well done game and I enjoy it too!

Anyway, suddenly, I notice that Mary Grace is nowhere to be found, so I pause the game. I go to the second floor and call "Mary Grace?" No response. Again "Mary Grace?" "I'm in here Daddy."

So I got into her room, which is empty, and open the closet door. Way in back of the closet, behind all of her clothes, a little head pops out. "What are you doing back there?" I ask.

"I was just playing on the iPad." "Ohh, What are you playing?"
Umm. I was... Ummm".

At this point I'm sensing some potential deception coming my way

"I was watching something." "Oh, what were you watching?"

"I was watching Netflix." "Oh, Netflix. What were you watching on Netflix?"

"Ummm. I was watching...." "You don't remember?"

"Well, there's this movie that I've always wanted to see"

"So I saw it on Netflix and I was watching that" "Oh, what movie is it"

"Umm... Umm... It's Tangled"

Anne had been scanning that movie to make sure it was appropriate for the kids, since Disney movies cannot be trusted blindly. Mary Grace must have launched Netflix and that movie came up to resume.

Long story, I know, but it was just so cute that she went to such lengths keep us from knowing she was watching a movie that in the end was target marketed to her

The chessboard incident

Anne was recently organising some things in the basement in preparation for the upcoming basement remodel when she came across something disturbing.

I had gotten a beautiful marble chess board as a gift in college. It had a nice marble base with black/gray marble squares and carved marble chess pieces. I had kept it safe ever since, placing it out of harms way and storing it in the upper shelves of closets when I wasn't using it. I've had it for nearly 26 years.

Well, it got organised from it's safe resting place to a shelf along with a bunch of kids toys in the basement. And this morning, Anne discovered the base cracked into 7 pieces, hopelessly ruined.

Anne asked Mary Grace and William what happened to it and both denied any knowledge, both equally convincing.

I got home from work and upon inspecting the damage, Mary Grace stepped up and admitted she broke it a few weeks back while taking a different toy off the shelf. She also got hurt when it happened, with a little cut to her shin but kept that to herself too.

She took the pieces and stacked them in the back of the shelf, then put a bunch of other toys on top of it, obviously hoping that nobody would find it. But mommy finds all.

I'm proud that she admitted breaking it, and her only punishment was a hug and a kiss for Daddy. I'm also a little disappointed that it's gone, but not disappointed enough to replace it (right now).

So we have some lying, some shame, some confession, some forgiveness and some gratitude for a good lesson learned.