Tactical Error du Jour

I made banana muffins for breakfast this morning. Lovely, moist, warm banana muffins with a hidden bonus of wheat germ for health-content.

Which I promptly counteracted by dusting the tops of them with brown sugar before baking, which gives them a sweet, crunchy top.

Baked for twenty minutes.

Cooled.

Removed from pan.

Put on a big plate.

Left the plate in the middle of the table, surrounded by smaller plates.

Told the Denizens to go downstairs and get themselves a muffin while I was getting Captain Adventure ready.

Which involved going back upstairs for pants that actually fit the child, and then sitting with him and a sippy cup of milk while he decided whether or not he was going to pitch a Mondo Tantrum of Doom because of the delay.

The observant among you will note that this left the muffins unattended for a period of nearly twenty minutes.

Then, saying brightly, “OK, you want a muffin now? Muf-FIN? For Captain Adventure? Muf-FIN?”, I stood, turned and whaaaaaaaaaaaat? There’s only one (1) lonely muffin sitting on the plate?

Slowly, my eyes flicked from the big plate to each of the smaller ones. Eldest: one half-chewed muffin on plate, one muffin in tummy. Danger Mouse: two muffins on plate, one half-eaten. Boo Bug…

…had eaten the sugary tops only of seven muffins.



ARGH!

And yet, the implacable law insists it is illegal for me to sell them on eBay…