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Now Lyric and Janna are seated right next to each other at the table.  Across from Kookie and Emmie.  Everyone is happily frosting cookies.  I keep an eye on the cookies still baking and begin dinner preparations.  I’m feeding a small army tonight.  

Ha.  ARMY.  

An hour later, the kitchen is clean.  With the help of several of my kiddos.  Dinner is now in the oven.  Frozen pizza.  Soon to be cooked pizza.  I’m not working extra hard tonight.  Today has been a long enough day.  

As I pull two pizzas from the oven and then pop in two more to bake, Kookie steps into the kitchen.

“Is dinner ready, Mom?  I’m starving.”

“Really?” I ask, surprised.  “I figured you’d eat a dozen cookies.”

He starts whistling and stares at the ceiling with a mock innocent expression on his cute face.

“I take it you ate fourteen,” I murmur dryly.

A look of pure astonishment flows across his countenance.  “How did you know that?” he asks in awe.

“Mommy powers.  They’re real.  Be afraid.  Be very afraid,” I warn jokingly.  I waggle my eyebrows at him.  “Keep yourself out of trouble.  You never know when Mommy is watching.”

A grin suddenly splits his face wide open with joy.  He crosses the room and pulls me into a bear hug.  “I love you, Mom,” he exclaims.

I return that hug in a little bit of shock.  “Kookie!  What’s the hug for?”

“For being the best mom in the whole world,” he murmurs into my shoulder.

My heart is melting, but I’m confused.  What exactly did I do to warrant such an accolade?

“Kookie?  What’s going on?”

“I don’t know.  I just felt like giving you a hug.  You’re such a fun mom.  Some of my friends can’t talk to their parents at all.  I just realize how blessed I am that I can.  You’re always here for me.  Even when I eat more than a dozen cookies.”

“Hey, I made those cookies for you to enjoy,” I smile at him.

He’s beaming down at me.  “That’s exactly what I’m talking about.  Right there.  Anybody else’s mom would be upset they ate so many.”

I shrug.  “You can handle it.  Besides, who do you think you got your sweet tooth from?” I grin lopsidedly at him.

“You’ve eaten fourteen cookies before?”

“Hmm.  At one time?  Lord, I hope not!  But then again, I’ve never had your metabolism.  Faster than the speed of light!”  After a moment, I admit, “Well, I did have two sets of twins.  So maybe I ate that many once upon a time.”

He grins.  Then his eyes fall on the pizza cooling on the stovetop.  “Is that ready to eat?”

“Absolutely.  And you need some protein to balance all that sugar!”  I turn away from him and grab a pair of kitchen scissors.  Pretty soon I’ve snipped that pizza into eight wedges.  Kookie grabs three of them and flashes me a grin.

“I left some for everyone else.”

I laugh as I look down at the remaining thirteen slices.  Which I have to divide up between nine other people.  Until the next two pizzas come out of the oven.

“Thanks for exercising such restraint,” I murmur dryly.

But he did.  On most days, he could easily eat that whole pizza himself.

“Just remember to save room for cookies and hot chocolate.  We’re going to decorate the tree in about an hour.”

He looks at me like I’m nuts.  “Mom, I just ate fourteen cookies.  I think I’m done for today.”

“Okay,” I respond as my lips twitch.  “That’s probably a very good idea.  Enjoy your pizza and send everyone else out to get some, okay?”

He nods and travels into the next room to spread the news of pizza far and wide.  While I continue to bask in the light of that smile and the warmth of that unexpected embrace.

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