Monday, August 15, 2011

LIES

Way back when I first purchased a family membership at the zoo, my mom gave me a piece of advice. At the zoo, you write down how many dependent children you have living with you at your address. She told me to just round up. That way, when one of your kids brings a friend, that extra kid is free. She said she always did that kind of thing when my brother and I were young.

I didn't think much about the LIE, and just signed up for three kids like my mom told me to. Never mind that we have never actually brought a friend for either of our boys. But, whatever, I COULD HAVE.

Well, on this past weekend's visit, we didn't bring friends, but we had to renew our membership. I was, of course, reminded of my enduring LIE. Then, I was forced to ramp it up. On the new membership application, you have to list the names and birth dates of your children. My first inclination was just to let it drop. Like, just say, "Oh you know what? We just have two kids now." But then what if I had to do more explaining and it only compounded the LIES?

So, I just decided that the easiest thing would be to invent a middle child. Plenty of people with 7 year-olds and 3 year-olds also have 5 year-olds, and now, ladies and gentlemen, we do too! As far as the zoo is concerned Shef exists, Mac exists, and so does Thomas, our middle child born on May 15th, 2006.



Welcome, Thomas! I think I do love you so much.

9 comments:

KC said...

When I saw this kid in Love Actually, I imagined that our own kids would probably look like this. This is how I pictured Shef before he was born!

It turns out Shef doesn't look like this kid, but I think Mac kind of does.

mm said...

I love this!!

Jill said...

If we were there, JJ could pass as Thomas. Of course, if we were there, we would still have a zoo membership, too.

While I understand your hesitance about the lie, I have done this too. I feel like if I get two or three kids in my family membership, shouldn't I be entitled to bring along another child for free? After all, the other times I come to the museum/whatever with only one child, I am not making as much mess or wearing down the exhibits as much.

Boy I am rationalizing this way too far.

Melanie said...

:-) I have four kids on my zoo membership. Well, I have four neices and maybe they sometimes spend the night...:-) Luckily we dont have to give names and b-days here in the Big O.

Love it! Good luck with school this week!

LH said...

I never even thought about this. But we never thought about getting a zoo membership either. Your plan is a good one.

StreibProjects said...

Hilarious!

jdoc said...

Thomas is very cute. And a good actor too. I imagine he's often away shooting his latest film and can't make it to the zoo at times.

Gina Marie said...

"There's something worse than the complete agony of being in love?" He's so cute in that flick.

He's also cute as your son! Congrats on your third :)

KC said...

I'm so glad you guys aren't judging me too harshly for lying.