Not more than 12-hours after Mack sent a hard rubber ball sailing through our basement window I caught him and Cayden doing the exact same behavior that broke the window in the first place.  First I heard the ball being bounced off the wall and then I actually witnessed Mack hurling the ball as hard as he could at Cayden who was running full speed trying to avoid having his head taken clean off.

I could not believe it.  After all we went through last night.  Not only did I forgive Mack for breaking the window but I  actually praised him for his honesty- I was completely taken- hoodwinked- suckered- bamboozled.

I remained calm even though on the inside I was screaming because I wanted to hear how Mack would handle being caught red handed- here is the conversation:

Dad- ”Mack, isn’t this the exact same thing you did last night that resulted in a broken window and a near death experience?”

Mack- “Oh no Dad, I was just trying to hand Cayden the ball” (My boy thinks I’m stupid)

Dad- “Really, is it common to hand someone a ball by throwing it with all your might while they run screaming from you in the opposite direction?”

Mack- “Absolutely.” (holy shit, my boy is convinced that not only am I completely out of touch with reality, but in fact he is smarter than me and he believes he can talk his way out of this)

Dad- “Cayden come here” (at this point I had the ball in my hand)

Cayden- “Yes Daddy.”

Dad- ”Here you go Cayden I wanted to hand this ball to you so you could have it- see that Mack that’s how you hand someone an object”

Mack- “Ohhh, that’s how you do it, no kidding I had no idea Dad” (feigning sincerity)

Dad- “Ahhggggg!, go to your room until your 20.”

I ended up throwing away every hard rubber ball in our house and cancelling the play-date that we had planned (see I am a hard ass).  But here’s the kicker, Connie and I took the boys to play racketball later that day.  How ironic is that- talk about mixed signals.  What do you think I taught the boys on our outing?  Not only will they have a new appreciation for hard rubber balls- but now I showed them how to increase the velocity of the ball by smashing it with a racket.  Maybe  I am that stupid and out of touch…