Barley vs. Smaug

We've been reading Tolkien's The Hobbit to the boys at bedtime. There is a scene in the book where Bilbo first encounters the dragon Smaug, sitting on his hoard of gems and treasure. He steals 1 gold cup from the veritable mountain of stuff the dragon sleeps on, and of course, the dragon notices immediately!

A very similar scene played out at dinner the other night. Our boys each have their own "Goody Jar" that holds candy to be doled out slowly as dessert, following a balanced meal. Frankly, the bribe of a little sugar is about the only way to get Barley to eat vegetables of any kind.

Anyway, these separate jars are now replete with Easter candy; trophies from 2 different Easter Egg hunts. Some candy also came from the Easter bunny, who left a trail of foil wrapped chocolate eggs leading from the boy's bedroom to the living room, where their Easter baskets were hidden.

Barley noticed immediately that one of his Smarties candies was missing. Keep in mind, this is a jar FULL of tootsie rolls, chocolate eggs, and other sugar-laden treats. He insisted, however, that there were TWO smarties on the very top of his jar, and one was now missing. His ire was aimed at his brother, Teddy, who was eating Smarties taken from his own jar.

Further investigation into the matter confirmed the accuracy of Barley's accounting. Without identifying the guilty party, I will say it was a parental unit, but not me. Not that I am above stealing candy from a kid, I just happened to be innocent of this particular caper...

Truly, any dragon, no matter how young or how small, knows everything that is in his hoard. Burglars (hobbit or human) beware!