It's Out

These kids are getting really good at keeping secrets. It worries me. I hope those teenage years are not going to pounce upon us soon.

I went for my dental appointment, picked hubby up and spent my evening open-mouthed and probed and poked at.

When I was done, I called hubby. He came to pick me up.

"The kids asleep?" I asked, thinking back to my deal with the kids about not letting the cat out of the bag. S had said,

"But if you come back late, Abi might say something about your hair and we won't be able to hear it."

"No," he replied. He appeared to have just woken up. He was fasting. The ten days of Zulhijjah. Plus, he was real stressed out. Who wouldn't? PHd-pursuers out there. I'm sure there is not one Phd-pursuers who is not stressed out.

"We're home!!" he said as we took off our shoes at the door.

He went upstairs while I took off my hijab and abaya and hung them downstairs. I couldn't help smiling, expecting the kids to barge downstairs anytime soon, for the anticipated 'surprise'.

While I was smiling to myself downstairs, I heard them talking about a 'red surprise' upstairs. I guess someone had let the cat out of the bag. As expected, the thunderous sound of not so little feet broke out above me.

"Ummi, Abi knew!!" S said to me.

"How did he know? Did he read my blog?" I asked her.

"No," she said.

"How do you know he didn't?" I asked.

"He said so."

"Somebody told him?" I asked.

"No."

Apparently hubby had more than a clue of what was happening, so I went on upstairs, head bared.

H enclosed me in a hug, N fought her way to me and S got all excited. All over my red-tinged hair! H got out his worksheets and showed how he had completed all of them. Hmm...maybe I should leave them alone more often. They seemed to be brimming with excitement over me being home, but probably it's just because of the 'red surprise' waiting to be revealed.

The mystery begging to be solved was how hubby got wind of what happened when no one told him anything and he didn't sneak a peek at my blog today.

"Did someone tell Abi?"

"No," they chorused.

"Then how did he know?" I asked, quite curious as to how Hubby knew.

"Well, Abi asked us what the surprise was. And N said red, because Abi said it begins with R," said S.

"Now Ummi is like S," said hubby.

"But my hair's not red! It's brown," said S.

Well, I asked hubby how he knew what I was up to and he said the small blue towel I used to dab my red forehead gave it away. Apparently, he had remembered that I wanted to color my hair anytime soon.

This implied that the kids kept the secret pretty well and that hubby listens to me. He however deemed that my hair is red enough, and that to have it even redder would not be necessary. The kids even exclaimed when I got back home,

"Hey! it looks even redder now!!"

Well, I guess, I won't need that red food coloring H so generously offered now, do I?