Bottle Caps and The Big Lie

So last evening, Jericho came out of his bedroom incensed that someone had rifled through his things while he was gone.

"Someone got into my closet, tore open my bottle caps candy and ate them all...and my toys are scattered all over the closet!"

Now as a rule, Judah isn't allowed in big brother's bedroom. Mostly because of his penchant for swallowing things (like nickels and tiny legos) that are not edible, but also because he can, in two seconds flat, wreak havoc on a carefully crafted lego creation that took big brother hours to construct.

Nevertheless, because the baby-proof door-knob cover on Jericho's door recently broke, I questioned him in depth.

His big brown eyes looked up into mine with such earnestness that I didn't think there was any possible way he was responsible.

Which left one other culprit... one of the little girls I babysit for...the same little girl that sleeps in that particular bedroom for nap-time.

Jericho was quick to accuse, immediately suspecting the girl, and I had to caution him that we can't jump to conclusions. We'd wait and ask her about it in the morning.

So, this morning I called her over and asked, "Did you get into Jericho's closet during nap-time and eat his candy?"

She, too, looked up at me with big hazel eyes filled with sincerity. "No, Miss Becky."

Jeff, who was standing nearby said, "Were the candies good?"

She replied, "I din't eat no cannies Mr. Jeff." Her expression and body language told me she had no earthly idea what we were talking about.

Soooo, I turned back to culprit #1 (who was listening to this interrogation questioning with great interest, I might add) and asked firmly, "Did you eat the candies in brothers closet, Judah?"

Again with those big earnest brown eyes...although this time, I sensed that the dramatic shaking of his head "no" was a bit overdone.

Jeff continued with a different tack, "What color were brother's candies, Judah?"

His eyes lit up. "Dey were pink!"

"Did they taste good?"

Once again he shook his head, only this time to say, "They were SOOO...ICKY!" and scowled in distaste.

The jig was up. (Even though Jeff, Jericho and I had to turn away from him to hide our laughing faces).

Those candies must not have been too terribly awful, because every last one of them was gone.

That kid is SO busted!