Stolen Markers & Sharpened Pencils...

Yesterday was quite an eventful day for my two boys.
First, Reese came home from school...strangely hobbling off the bus in front of our house. When he stepped inside the door, he had the look of mischief in his eyes. He said, "Mommy, guess what I have in my shoe." Um...I can only imagine! "What Reese?" At that point, he whipped out a fat, black dry erase marker. "I have a marker!" he declared with a smile. Normally a marker wouldn't alert my mommy senses, but the fact that he had sneakily brought it home in his shoe caused my suspicions to surface.
"Who's marker is that, Reese?"
"Mr. Hayek's"
"Did you take this from Mr. Hayek's desk?"
"Yes."
"Reese, when you take something that isn't yours, that's called stealing. How do you think that makes Mr. Hayek feel?"
Suddenly Reese's face transformed into one of sheer despair!
"Does it make him feel...SAD?"
"Yes Reese, it makes him feel sad."
He burst into tears, and I felt like the rottenest mother ever for pushing my sweet, naive boy to tears. Especially when this was one of the darlingest thing he's ever done! But true to my role as mother, I helped him close his eyes and tell Jesus sorry for stealing. Then I instructed him to give it back to Mr. Hayek tomorrow, and tell him sorry for taking his marker. Again, Reese busted out crying, "But I want a marker!" OK, he obviously wasn't getting the concept. So the issue was dropped, and I swept him up into the tightest, kissiest hug I could give him. He is my sweetest child!

Then, Mr. Mark came home. He was beaming so bright, he could power all of New York City. What was his secret joy?? He waited until Daddy arrived home before he spilled the beans...apparently, when Mark had entered class that morning, he saw that Grace (his 3-year crush; his dream-girl; the one whom we incessantly tease him about. hehe) was rummaging through Mark's desk. "Grace, what are you doing?"
"Oh, I was cleaning up your desk for you. And I sharpened all your pencils."
Sharpened all his pencils?!?! Oh my! You'd think she'd declared her love for him! He melts into the floor everytime he thinks about her sweet, thoughtful pencil-sharpening skills. And, of course, Ryan and I see it as fresh, new material that we can use to tease him! (Mark laughs his head off when we tease him about Grace. And his face gets beet red. It's great!) So, before bed, when we brought the subject up again, we told him Grace must really like him after his amazing performance in the school play. He had the funniest reply! "She just can't resist showing me how much she likes me!" Oh please!!!! Someone please pop that big fat head before it explodes! LOL.