The Surprise

Can you keep a secret? What I'm about to tell you must be guarded with the utmost of secrecy, until the time arrives to reveal it. Our relationship has now come to the point of no return, and I am about to entrust you with a plan that I have plotted. If revealed before its allotted time, the plot could have devistating effects on the parties concerned, namely me.

My co-conspirator (husband) has been tight lipped about the secret. But I find myself unable to maintain the same composure. Damn! I know I shouldn't be doing this, but I just can't seem to help myself. I'm honestly a very good secret keeper. Ask anyone who's shared their secrets with me. I just can't seem to contain myself when it's something conjured from the depths of my diabolical mind, especially when it's this good. No, wait. Back track. It's not the secret per se, I think it also has to do a lot with who I'm keeping the secret from. In this case, it's my three children. So you can imagine how hard this is for me. To date I haven't kept anything secret from them...never had to.

When I was a child, no bigger than my oldest, I had a way of knowing what my mom was thinking or going to do. My mom, on the other hand, learned a little late that she couldn't keep secrets from me (spilled the beans on her). Since then my mom and I made a pact never to hide secrets from each other, which, I've had no problems keeping my end of. What bothers me now though, is I have a sinking feeling that my oldest has the same ability to guess my secret. I've been avoiding all her questions concerning the surprise. I'm such a ditz, that I even told her that there was going to be a surprise, then had to physically clamp my mouth shut. How am I going to get through this without ruining it?

So, this is me getting the secret off my chest. I've planned a surprise for my children, to which they have an on going countdown. As per their last count there are 7 days left to the surprise. My youngest asked me if it was big or small and I replied Really Big! That seemed to please them a lot. Was it as big as their room. It was bigger than the building in which we live (that's big!!). So,exactly how big was this surprise? As big as your heart, was my reply. That really confused my middle child. What are you talking about? My heart is so small. True, but it's as big as the love you can hold in it. All I got for that was a collective roll of the eyes.
My oldest then proseeded to bluntly tell me: Ma, just tell us what the surprise is and spare your torture.
You want to know the secret too?
Wait!