Less than a month to Bella’s birthday and I have no ideas for Bella’s string thing gift. See, three years ago (when she was still a little kid), Chad and I waited for Bella and Dawkins to fall asleep and then tied the ends of string to their wrists. Then we spent the next hour elaborately unwinding the balls of string throughout the house, upstairs, downstairs – everywhere – and then back inside to the kitchen. Both ends of string ended in the oven at two identical gifts for both of them (the first year it was a stack of art supplies), but we had to be really tricky so they couldn’t figure out where the string ended.
They loved it so much that I felt like the best mom ever – not that it was my idea (another good one from Wanda), but just that I had actually gotten around to executing the idea while she was still young enough to enjoy it.
Not surprisingly I guess, both girls begged for it again. And again the next year. As they have gotten older and more sophisticated we have had to get more devious and inventive. We have resorted to throwing the ball out the upstairs window and winding through the yard and various sheds before ending in the locked trunk of the car.
Maybe they would like a knock-off designer purse or some make-up.
Too bad we have never taken pictures. The house always looks like a gigantic spiderweb.
P.S. We also always leave a note tied to the string, asking the girls to put on shoes and a coat and to wind the string up neatly as they go along – just a tip.
