Jason-Dylan-Melisa-at-Carroll

Way Better Than A Bike.

One of the advantages of having blogged for nearly ELEVEN years (My blogoversary is coming up at the end of this month) is that usually if I want to refer to an old family story, I can search my blog and discover that I already wrote about it. That’s the case today; I needed to provide some background information for something very awesome that just happened, and there it was. Or rather, here it is. Before I get to current events, I present the rewind, slightly edited:

Years ago, our neighbors bought a bicycle for their son Julian, who was celebrating his eighth birthday. It was his first bike, and they asked us if they could hide it in our garage so they could bring it out at his birthday party a couple of days later. We were happy to help, and Jim hid it in the back of the garage. Jim told our boys, Jason and Dylan, (then six-ish and nine-ish), that we were storing the bike for Julian’s parents, for his birthday.

 

On the day of the party, the three boys were playing outside while Julian’s parents were finishing up the decorations and other details. Eventually they gravitated towards our open garage, where Jim was cleaning up. Jason, without warning and much to Jim’s dismay, took Julian right over to the bike, not only showing it to him but declaring, “Look what *we* got you for your birthday, Julian!”

 

You may have heard Jim and me gasping, wherever you were at the time.

 

Not only was the cat out of the bag about the bike, but our son single-handedly killed the buzz of Julian’s parents, who were extremely excited about presenting him with his very first bike.

 

Jim had to run interference, sheepishly correcting Jason and setting the record straight about who bought the bike for Julian, telling him that it wasn’t a gift from us; it was from his parents. Then he and I had one of those ohmygodhowembarrassingthatoursonspilledthebeans moments, and when we headed next door to tell the neighbors what happened, we all laughed. Kind of. They mostly had a good sense of humor about our adorable little cherub ruining their surprise, but naturally they were a little disappointed.

 

That disappointment wasn’t soothed in the least when, upon being presented with the bike in front of a full house of friends and family, Julian looked at US and said, “THANK YOU FOR THE BIKE!!!!”

 

So that was awkward.

 

It took us a while, but we finally convinced him that, again, it was his parents who actually bought him the bike, and we were only responsible for gifting him with one of his favorite movies on DVD and that was all.

That spectacular slip-up was an instant Wells Family Classic, and it comes up regularly even today.

And I mean literally today.

Jason called me last night when I was unable to answer my phone, and we eventually connected, this afternoon. He had a question about his I-PASS, the little plastic thing that is a prepaid toll collector (you may know it in your state as EZ PASS). He hasn’t yet gotten his own I-PASS on his own account because it’s not something any of us have thought about since he got his own place, and sometime recently he got a notice that the I-PASS assigned to his car had expired. (Did you know they have a shelf life? They do.) Long story short, he wasn’t sure how to resolve this. I told him to go ahead and just hang onto the expired one for me and I’d take care of it the next time I visit, and to go ahead and get his own new I-PASS under his own account.

He said, “Okay, yeah. I just need to get it taken care of before I come down there for my visit.”

SILENCE.

I said, “WAIT. Are you coming to visit?? WHEN??”

SILENCE.

Then he said, “Julian, I got you a bike!”

And that’s why I’ve been grinning for four straight hours. Seriously, I cannot stop smiling. He’ll be flying down the weekend before my birthday, overlapping his brother’s visit (that I already knew about) and I couldn’t be more excited. I told my parents that Dylan would be here for my family birthday celebration; had no clue about his brother.

Finding out that Jason is flying down too so I can celebrate my birthday with both of my sons is, for lack of a better phrase, the icing on the cake, and way better than a bike.

Jason Dylan Melisa at Carroll 1