“Just one more lick?”

Briggs pleaded as I headed toward the trash with the remaining sloppy mess of the Watermelon Jolly Rancher lollipop that I really should NOT have let him have for dessert (especially after catching him not so slyly putting down a mini dark chocolate peanut butter cup).

“Stick out your tongue,” I said.

He did and I offered him one last chance to get in the quickest of licks in the history of licks.

He was up for the challenge.

“Okay, that’s it now.  We’ve officially busted all the rules.  Two desserts.  Yahtzee instead of reading, and we’re thirty minutes past bedtime.”

To this Briggs cheered, grabbed his baseball glove, and started playing off the wall with one of two balls that have been sanctioned for living room games.

“Enough is enough, B,” I called from the bathroom.  “Time to brush teeth and go to bed.”

Amidst the thuds of that ball crashing against our home’s southern wall and smacking back into his glove, I heard him mutter:

“Enough, enough, enough.  I’ve had enough of you.”

I turned off the running faucet, and in the best Deb (that’s my Mom) voice I could muster, caught him off guard with a: “What did you just say?”

“I said I’ve NOT, Mumma.  I said I have NOT had enough of you.  I said NOT, NOT enough.”

Then, he smiled wide.  I did my best not to laugh, and in truth he came in and brushed and flossed with no fuss.

There are a good many times when I give thanks for my kid’s kindness.  His humor.  His sweet words, but tonight…tonight, I’m totally grateful that he’s just the right degree of fresh.

It’s good…for all of us.