A Leap Day Memory

It's not every day that you have a 29th day in February. It's also not every day that your teenage son gets asked to the modern version of a Sadie Hawkins dance (aka "TOLO"). Put the two together, and you have a very memorable leap day!

The night before, I had gotten a text from one of Caleb's friends, Grace Hampton. She wanted to ask Caleb to TOLO, and wanted to fill his car with balloons to do it. It is common for the girls to come up with fun and creative ways of asking the boys to the dance. I was, of course, super excited and said I would do anything to help her out. 

Caleb had never been asked to TOLO before. His sophomore year, he wasn't 16 yet, and last year he was avoiding being asked. He and some of his guy buddies planned a guy hangout for the night of TOLO, and he told anyone who was hinting at asking him that he already had plans...the bum. But, for whatever reason...maybe because it was senior year...maybe because he had some positive peer pressure...he was willing to go if someone would ask him this time. Score!

Grace's plan was to come by in the morning and fill up the car before Caleb went out for the day. Since it was on a Saturday, I knew that wouldn't be a problem since Caleb likes to get extra beauty sleep on Saturdays. I told her to text me when she was on the way and that I would open up the garage door for her and her friend to come in and take care of business. 

Their plan went off without a hitch. Caleb snoozed on and they did this...

The idea was for Caleb to discover the car and then have to pop all the balloons in order to puzzle out who had asked him to the dance.

Unfortunately, it was at that point that I had to leave the house for our big Stake Relief Society Meeting at the stake center. I was so bummed, knowing I was going to miss the big discovery, darn it.

Sure enough, by the time I got home, Caleb was up and running around. I asked him what was up, and he went on nonchalantly, saying that nothing was going on. Ha! Stinker! I went to toss something in the kitchen trash and saw all the popped balloons! Then I realized there was a pile of little slips of paper on the bar, all with names on them. Talk about anti-climactic. He had done the deed and carried on without any show of emotion whatsoever. He knew that I would have been all excited about it, and was clearly nipping that in the bud. Nice one, Caleb. This is my life with Jerdon boys. Ugh.