I'll bet you a strawberry

With four kids it's difficult to have quality one on one time with each of them. I have to admit that Hubby and I are pretty good at it, though. We take turns running errands with each kid and everyone gets equal tickle time...we'll not so much Kelly anymore since she's too cool for tickling. She just asks for money instead.

On Sunday, two days before school started, Carson came into my room and laid down on the bed with me. He snuggled up and told me he didn't want to go to kindergarten. We'd been dealing with this all summer and Carson recently declared that he wanted to go to firefighter school instead of kindergarten. I reminded him that Uncle Mike told him all firefighters had to go to kindergarten before they became firefighters.

Carson was convinced that he wasn't going to have fun at school. I told him about using his new Transformer's backpack and his matching lunch box. We talked about how he'd eat in the cafeteria and how I would partially open his Cheetos and gummy snacks so he didn't have to ask for help. I told him he would get to color, play games, learn to read and write and make lots of friends.

"Can I have strawberries in my lunch?" was what he asked after I said all of that.

I laughed and told him of course he could have strawberries.

I gave him a big hug and kiss. "I'll bet you a strawberry that you'll have fun," I suggested.

"A strawberry?"

"Mmmmhmmm. If you don't have any fun then I'll owe you a strawberry. If you have fun then you owe me a strawberry. Deal?"

"Deal."

The first day was a little rough since he was still groggy and sore from his shots but by the third day he came out with a big smile, holding his friend Angelina's hand, and saying that kindergarten was great!

My big boy owes his mommy a strawberry.

But I'll give him one instead.