On a stick

While reading Curious George to Elisabeth, Doug said "the bus turned into an alley." Then on the next page, there was the bus. Elisabeth said, "you been kidding daddy! It's still a bus!"
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I took Elisabeth with me to Costco today. I can always get her excited to go with me by promising her we'll "go around and eat stuff." The kid will eat anything served on a toothpick or in a little white cup. Things she wouldn't dream of eating on a plate go down easily when presented on a toothpick. In the past, she has eaten dumplings, salmon dip, guacamole, fish tacos, and some kind of whole grain crunchy nut ball - I still don't know what it was. Even if she hates them, she'll always take the next one we pass - even if I suggest that it is something she might not like.

I bought some pineapple teriyaki chicken meatballs a few weeks ago. There is no objective reason she wouldn't like these meatballs, but we had them before and she refused to admit that she actually liked them, and refused to really eat any of them. But I realized that the reason she didn't like them is because I stupidly served them on a plate. With a fork. Turns out the toothpick trick works at home as well as it does in a warehouse.

One reason I love going places with Elisabeth is her exuberance for the little things. We walked down an aisle at Costco today that had microwaves, toasters, and things of that nature. "Loooooook Mommy! Microwaves!! We have a microwave! I loooove microwaves! I'm so happy!" Next aisle, "loooook Mommy! Cups!" And her favorite? "Looook! An up and down chair! Like Daddy has at his office!!!! Daddy has that one! Can we call him?"

But, I can wear her down and have her down at my grumpy level by checkout. Today there were approximately 35 million other Costco shoppers all attempting to check out at the same time. I needed granola bars. They were, of course, way up at the front right by the checkout lines. So I maneuvered my overloaded cart up to the granola bars, grab my box, then set out to find a line to wait in only to find out I'm boxed in my idiots who are standing around chatting - not shopping, not waiting in line, chatting. So I growled as I moved my cart. And Elisabeth proceeded to growl for at least the next 5 minutes. Right as we walked by the idiots too. And as we stood in line behind the overly-coiffed, overly-Botoxed, Chanel No. 5 smelling older woman wearing big sunglasses inside. I am certain that behind those dark shades I was getting the "you should be ashamed of yourself" look as she thought how much better off Elisabeth would be in the hands of a properly trained nanny. Did I mention Elisabeth had a big soda and was eating jelly beans? Perhaps the look was justified.