You'll Be Missed

Despite the pending federal charges, I must say the balloon boy's Dad has got me thinking. Wouldn't it be great if I could just send E-man up in a helium balloon when he had a big mad? I have actually been day dreaming about it since it happened. It would be at least a six hour break depending on how far he traveled. I probably wouldn't even mind the helicopters buzzing above or the ransacking of my house as authorities searched for my poor six year old boy that took off in a balloon.

E-man too is fascinated with the story. From the day it happened we came home and he said, "did the boy fall out of the balloon?" I said, "no he wasn't in the balloon." E-man asked, "where was he?" "He was in a box in the attic," I said. "So he didn't get to go up in the balloon?" E-man asks. "No," I said. E-man was absolutely awestruck thinking about the possibility.

Today we went to the grocery store and E-man would not leave the balloon aisle. He was there so long the manager finally came over and tried to give him a cookie. E-man did not want a cookie, he wanted a helium balloon. So she let him pick out what balloon he wanted in exchange for the promise that he would listen to me until he was 18 years old. E-man appropriately picked the balloon with the right travel logo, "you'll be missed." Annie also got a balloon. (Abegail was at school) About 18 seconds later the manager caught E-man under the shopping cart with his balloon and I was pleading with him to get out. The manager then reiterated, "I thought you made me a promise, you must listen to mom until you are 18. " I really think its so cute how people try to help, if it was just a balloon that would make the world right for E-man, but I play along, people try to be so nice.

So we got home and E-man had me take pictures of him and his balloon. I told him, if he let it go it would be gone. Inevitably, he let it go about 18 minutes after we got home. This entire time we had not talked about balloon boy, but when the balloon took off E-man yelled, "it's going to be on TV!" To which I responded, "it's not going to be on TV, and we don't need a reality show. Everywhere we go, you make us a living reality show." At which point he tried to steal Annie's balloon and promise that RIGHT NOW I would go get him another one.

I was going to send this picture out as my Christmas card saying something to the effect of "Peace, Joy, Love...blah blah blah ...and the magic of grading on a curve. When my sister came up with a better caption. She said this is the VISA commercial:

"Three clearly annoyed children."

"Priceless."

Quotes From E-man:
E: Mommy, do you have grandparents?
M: Yes, but they all died.
E: They all died? Where are they?
M: They are in heaven.
E: What are they doing there?
M: They are playing bridge.
E: What's bridge?
M: It's a card game grandparents used to play. They liked to play cards just like you.