My Real Life

Love that kid.

So, the nursery school where we’ve sent all the monkeys does a bang up job on St. Patrick’s Day.

Particularly the teacher that they all had for their 3-4 year old class.

We’ll call her Mrs. S.

The famed leprechaun, Seanie “O’Gravy” (who I am convinced is really Seanie O’Grady, but my children were all adamant it was “O’Gravy”) comes to the classroom every year and just wreaks havoc on the room.

Chairs upside down, leprechaun footprints on the tables, toys askew.

It’s a real mess.

The kids love it.

Every year, they (starting with Monkey Girl) would ask if the leprechaun was going to come to our house, and we would say “No, he seems to just go to school!”

And then…

A few years ago, when Monkey in the Middle was about 3, the leprechaun came to our house.

Monkey in the Middle was in two classes at nursery school.

A M, T, W class and a Th, F class.

So, St. Patrick’s Day was on a Thursday.

His M, T, W class had their party on Wednesday, so he ate all the green food his tummy could handle.

The next day, St. Patrick’s Day, the monkeys woke up and were going about their morning routine of eating breakfast and getting dressed when Real Man and I hear a shriek from the upstairs, hall bathroom.

“He came!  He came!  Seanie O’Gravy came to our house!!!”

I looked at Real Man and he shrugged.

He looked at me and I shrugged.

So, we raced up the stairs to see what all the fuss was about.

Well, suffice it to say, there was a green poop in the toilet.

No joke.

The kids were dancing around the hallway like fools, screaming and yelling that the leprechaun DID, in fact, visit their home!

They were sure it was because they had been so good, he couldn’t resist causing a little mischief in their house.

They.  Were.  So.  Happy.

Real Man and I couldn’t stop laughing.

Tears streaming down our faces.

Neither of us had the heart to explain that it was the result of Monkey in the Middle and his green food from the day before combined with his penchant for forgetting to flush.

Yes, it’s a story that only a parent could love, but it’s also a little reminder of how easy it is to make children happy.

The leprechaun visits our home every year now.

It doesn’t take long to flip bowls upside down, put out cookie and brownie mix instead of cereal or forks and knives instead of spoons.

It’s not hard to sprinkle some green glitter around and use your thumb to make leprechaun footsteps through the glitter.

It doesn’t take a genius to realize that, sometimes, the simplest things bring the most joy.

So, Seanie O’Gravy has struck again at our home, this year, and the smiles on the faces of the monkeys are enough to ensure that he’ll be back every year, even when they are too old to care anymore.