“What is it? Give me a hint?” I would plead on a daily basis.
But I’d never get a hint.
So I checked our bank statement to see if there was some sort of clue. There was no clue by the way. Have I mentioned that I have very little patience? I tell my kids that patience is a virtue but when it involves a gift, I forget all about the virtue thing and just want to know what I’ve gotten.
I even asked Natalie what Daddy bought me since she had gone out with him.
“Cheese!” she said gleefully.
Cheese?!
Well, actually I wouldn’t be too bummed about cheese. I love cheese. Cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, pepper jack cheese…my mouth was watering just thinking about it.
“It’s not cheese,” Tom told me.
“Yes, but if it were cheese, you wouldn’t tell me either. So how do I know that you’re telling me the truth?” I pointed out.
“I am telling you the truth. It’s not cheese!”
I managed to forget about the gift until Christmas.
Finally it was the day that I’d find out what Tom got me.
First, he got me this:
Actually, I picked it out because when I said I wanted one he looked online and said there were like 5 Flip cameras available and which one did I want? What color did I want? Did I want another battery to go with it?
“Just buy the one you want. This is giving me a headache,” Tom had fumed. He gets very impatient when he has to shop. It’s why he hates to do it.
So I bought this one and I’ve named it Flappy the Flip Camera.
“Do you have to name everything?” Tom asked.
Why yes. Yes I do.
Then he handed me the Mystery Present.
I twisted it around my hands for a few seconds.
“Are you going to open it already?” Tom asked impatiently. “I’m hungry.”
He’s always hungry.
“I’m savoring the moment,” I explained. I crunched the top part of the present and it was soft. “I say it’s some sort of stuffed animal.”
“Open it and find out!” Tom said, waving his arm towards the present.
I pretended I was a detective as I poked along my gift.
“Definitely a stuffed animal,” I mumbled seriously.
“Hello. Hungry man over here. Hungry man over here,” Tom said. “If you want me to take your picture, hurry and open the present.”
So I did.
And I found this:
Now, I get that some people won’t understand why Tom got this for me.
I mean, it’s an orange creature with bug eyes like Charro.
But here’s the thing: whenever we’d go to the store I’d always laugh at it. I had seen the movie where it was from (Monsters VS Aliens) and it turned out to be my favorite character. I had told Tom that he cracked me up a few times but I never thought he paid attention.
Now I know that he had.
“You listened to me!” I said as I pulled the paper off of my new friend Gerkin. His actual name is Insectosaurus but who wants to go by that? He looks like a Gerkin.
“Of course I listened to you. Now can we eat?” Tom begged.
“You listened to me! You knew I liked this!”
“Yes, I listened to you blah blah blah. Can we eat?”
“You listened to me. Your ears really work!”
“Now I feel like you’re insulting me.”
“I’m not! It’s just, sometimes I say things to you and you don’t seem to hear me. But this proves you can hear!” I said, waving Gerkin in the air.
“Mines?” Natalie said, coming up beside me. She tried to grab Gerkin.
“Uh no. Mines,” I said firmly, hugging him to my chest.
I brought Gerkin upstairs when we went to bed that night. He sat on my dresser.
“Er Amber? I don’t like the way that thing is staring at me,” Tom admitted.
“Then look away.”
“I can’t! I roll over and it’s watching me!”
“Gerkin has a name and he’s not watching you!” I insisted.
“He is! I won’t be able to sleep.” With that, Tom pushed the covers off of him, marched into the bathroom and then covered poor Gerkin with a towel.
Oh well.
So yes, even though it seems like it was a small gift, it meant a lot.
“You listen to me,” I said to Tom before I drifted off to sleep.
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