Sara: Mommy, UM…I’ve got some bad news.  Daddy guessed his birthday present last night when you were at dinner with your friends.

Mommy: HOW? How on earth could he have guessed his present?

Kelly: We kind of gave him a hint.

Mommy: What was the hint?!

Sara: We told him it was alive.

Mommy: That was rather…specific.

Kelly: We thought he’s guess a TIGER!!!  I don’t know how he guessed it!  He loves tigers!

Sara: Why are you laughing like that? It’s like you’re laughing…but not?

Mommy: Well, what’s done is done, but it’s NOT a done deal.  We have to have the play date with the kitten first when Daddy’s not home and make sure Syd and Cy are OK with this. And then after that, Danielle has to actually give us her kitty, and that’s a really big deal too.  It’s just a maybe right now.  PLUS, you have to remember that Daddy gets to name the cat.  He has wanted that cat since the moment he picked it up, and it’s his birthday, so he does the naming.

Kelly: Don’t worry Mommy!  Don’t worry.  Daddy knows you wanted it to be a surprise, so he’s going to ACT surprised, and we’re all going to pretend I’m giving him a COMPUTER.  You know how much he loves computers, and I wanted to give him a computer all along, SO…that’s the surprise.  See?  It’s totally fine.

Mommy: OH!  Well OK then.  Yes, the idea that we might give him a live tiger but actually have a 5 year old buy him a computer is a far more plausible scenario anyway.  Good.  OK, in the car, time to head to school.

Sara and Kelly (dancing from head to toe out to the minivan): A kitten!  A kitten!!!