I guess you can't really ask a 3 year-old to keep a secret. In preparation for Mother's Day, I took my daughter Ellie to the store to get my wife a gift. We walked around for quite awhile trying to figure out what she wanted to get her. She had plenty of ideas, mostly because everything we walked by she would say, "Mommy would love this!" I steered her away from the Disney Princess alarm clocks and the scented pillows shaped like fruit that she wanted to get her. I didn't think my wife would get much enjoyment out of either. (By the way, who thought of scented pillows? That's a topic for another blog I think).

So we looked around, she picked out the gift for mom that she wanted to get, and we headed home. On the way we talked about keeping the presents a secret. I said, "Alright, so when we get home we can't tell Mom what we bought her right? It's a secret, and we'll give her the present in a couple of days." She said innocently, "Ok Daddy." Then I said, "What are you going to say if Mommy says, 'What did you get me?" Ellie said, "A necklace!" "No, no, no, no..." I said to her. We talked more about how presents are secrets until we give them to someone. She seemed to understand.

We got home, I hid the presents, and Ellie stayed mute about the contents of the bag. Then we were reading stories before nap, and she says out of the blue, "Mommy, we went to the store...and bought you a necklace!!" She was cuddled up in my arm, so I wrapped my hand playfully over her mouth and said, "Noooooo, Ellieeeeee!!! We can't tell Mom what we got!!" But it was too late. "At least I don't know what it looks like," my wife said. But that night she and Ellie were driving by the store where we bought it and Ellie says, "Mommy, that's the store where we bought your necklace...it's shaped like a heart!!"

So now the entire cover's blown. At least my wife doesn't know whether it's silver or gold. But I'm sure if Ellie knew, Mommy would know soon after...good thing Daddy's good at keeping secrets at least.