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A Chompo Bar for Lauren

Charlie and I went to the book store to get Lauren a study Bible for her twelfth birthday. I laid the Bible on the checkout counter when Charlie came to a realization, "That present is from you and Papa. I want to get Lauren a present from me!" Perhaps the array of candy right at his eye level helped his line of thinking but at any rate I could tell by the enthusiasm in Charlie's voice that we could not leave without a present just from him.

"OK. What do you think Lauren would like?"

"How 'bout these chocolates?"

"Lauren doesn't really like chocolate."

"How 'bout these chocolates?"

"I repeat, Lauren doesn't like chocolate."

"Oh. Then these. What are these?"

"Cinnamon candies. I think they might be too spicy. How about this?" I held up a roll of Orange Creme Life Savers."

He studied the wrapper with great deliberation. "That's not shareable. I want to get something to share."

"OOOH, so what you are looking for then is a Chompo Bar?"


It's been a while since we've read A Birthday for Francis so Charlie looked quizzically at my raised eyebrows. "What?"

"Never mind. The Life Savers are shareable."

"OK. Let's get them!" So we did. And then I explained for a long time how Lauren's presents were a secret and how he could not tell her and that if he wanted to talk about them he could only whisper about them to me when we were alone. And he wanted to know how alone, like when Lauren was in the same room but not sitting on the same sofa. And I said no, only when we couldn't see Lauren. And I repeated this several times.

When we got home Charlie got distracted with his sword and his radio control car with the dead battery and he forgot all about the presents so this morning we were able to surprise Lauren with her Chompo Bar...err...Life Savers. We didn't give her the other presents until dinner when Stuart came home but Charlie couldn't wait until dinner for Lauren to open his so early this morning before breakfast, he handed his little wrapped package to her.

"Here, Lauren. It's for you. It's for sharing! Open it! Open it!" Charlie said, jumping up and down, waving the goods in front of her.

Lauren opened her Life Savers and she was excited because she does like orange cream anything. "Thank you, Charlie."

And Charlie who had been waiting for two days to share, commenced to lay out his plan. "You get one. And give one to Mama and one to John and Faith and Claire and save one for Papa. Then give one to me and you get all the rest. "All the rest" turned out to be only four but Charlie is way better at sharing than Francis.
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Comments

Sarah said…
This is my favorite Frances story. I've read it over and over to the kids and they all know about the Chompo bar and Frances' original spelling.

Happy Birthday Lauren! We miss you.

sem
April 11, 2009 at 4:00 AM
Xandra@Heart-of-Service said…
I've not read that book, but Charlie's enthusiasm over giving Lauren a gift with an ulterior motive sounds so much like Grace! I just had to laugh out loud...

I'm impressed that he was able to keep the secret!

Happy Birthday Lauren!

Xandra
April 11, 2009 at 6:20 PM
Christine said…
Oooh, we love that book here too! I make up silly tunes to the songs and the kids think it's a riot. What a cute story to share about your kiddos!

Happy birthday to Lauren!
April 11, 2009 at 9:24 PM
Heather C said…
Now I have to find that book. :) I loved this post. Bless his heart... Happy Birthday, Lauren!
April 13, 2009 at 10:20 PM
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