Truth Will Out

Tonight, as I was cleaning a couple of days worth of pee from behind the toilet, Ethan and Cameron confessed that they had found my stash of hidden Easter goodies.  

It was my fault, really.  I had told Cameron that he could look for his old Cub Scout Pinewood Derby car in his box of treasures in my closet, but when he failed to turn it up there, he continued to search other containers I had on the shelves and floor.  Cameron knows the ugly truth about Santa and the Easter Bunny and has been sworn to secrecy.  So when he stumbled upon my Rubbermaid hiding spot, he told Ethan "Do NOT look in that box!"  What else could Ethan do but look?

Ethan is nine and a half years old, so I can't say that this revelation was unwelcome.  Granted, Andrew and I are pretty good liars and obviously capable of getting a child to a fairly advanced age with their Santa belief firmly intact, but I was starting to wonder how a kid with street smarts like Ethan has could go so long without making the deductions that would clue him in to the biggest parent lie in the history of ever.  I was honestly beginning to wonder if he was a little on the naive side.  My concerns were not alleviated when immediately after the discovery of the Easter Bunny goods he asked, "So, is Santa real?"  And when I answered in the negative, Ethan asked, "So where did you get the Nooks?"

Seriously?  Did he think we made them like elves or something? I thought about telling him that I lifted them from Barnes and Noble while Dad distracted the sales associates with a fake heart attack over the latest Maxim magazine cover...but I just looked at Ethan like he was a bit dense and told him we bought them.  Dude.  We're not that poor.  Well, not all the time, anyway.

Cameron and I talked to Ethan about being part of the secret and the magic of Christmas and how it's a big responsibility to make sure that other kids, especially his little brothers, do not find out about it because we don't want to rob them of the magic prematurely.  I then sent the boys to bed to ponder the revelations of the evening.  

I went downstairs to tell Andrew that we have another kid "in the know", and found it rather amusing that he was watching his favorite show - "Finding Bigfoot".  I guess there are things that some people never figure out, even as adults.  If anyone sees Andrew watching this show, please don't tell him that Bigfoot isn't real.  I wouldn't want to spoil that wonder for him.