Old Musings #3: Hard Candy

This is from January 18, 2003. H was 3 1/2 years old.

Yesterday I was feeding Princess Commando her morning bottle at the computer desk while surfing the internet. H came to me sheepishly, "Can I  have one of the hard candies Nana gave me yesterday?" He had already eaten a hearty breakfast, so I didn't think one would hurt. "Sure. You may have one." H was so proud of his candy- 4 pieces of banana hard candy. He had already eaten one the night that my mother brought them over. He had each designated for a special moment over the next 3 days. "This one is for after I play with my Rescue Heroes in the morning time. This one is for after lunch on Thursday. This one is for when M comes home on Friday."

I was distracted by an online article I was reading when he came back into the living room. But, I could hear the crisp crinkle of candy wrappers. He was singing in the background, "I'm a big kid, yeah. I can eat hard candy. Hmmm, hmmm."
 
"Yes, you are a big kid," I absently agreed.

Not 10 minutes had passed and he peeked his head up over the side of my desk. " By accident I ate all of the candies."

"What?"

"I ate four candy." I thought for a moment. But, there were only 3 banana candies left.

"What candy are you talking about?" I now noticed the blue sugary specks flecked on his lips. What did he get into? I put Princess Commando down and pulled him closer to me. "What do you mean you ate four candy?"

"I had a blue one, and a green one, and the orange one and the red one." Lollipops! Old lollipops that had been tucked away in the cupboard since Halloween.

"You ate four lollipops?"

"Yes," he lowered his eyes in shame. His lower lip stuck out awaiting my reaction.

"Well, do you still have the sticks?" I wanted to make sure that he really ate lollipops.

"Yes, they're on the couch." Sure enough, all in a row, four lollipop sticks gleefully sucked bare lay beside their wrappers.

"Do you have a tummy ache?"

"Yeah, kind of,"  he paused, "But, you're not mad."

"No, I'm not mad. How were they?"

" Good! I tried the blue one and the red one and the orange one and the green one! Cause I'm a big kid and I can eat hard candy."

"Yes, you are a big kid. But, you know that you are not having any more lollipops for a long, long time."

"Yes," he agreed with a mock pout. "But you're not mad."