Funny Story...

So Leo and I were at our awesome co-op, Mississippi Market, on West 7th in Saint Paul on Monday to get a few groceries, mostly produce. Leo loves to shop with me and try samples, pushing his Leo-sized cart thru the lanes.

On this particular day, he told me he was hungry on the way there and I said we would hurry and get home to have a piece of fruit while I made dinner. Into the store we went and while I did have to tell Leo at one point that it was not OK to run in the store with his cart, I was grateful it was a quiet time in the store and went about getting what we needed. I have to mention at this point that Leo is an amazingly good boy and I'm learning that we are kind of spoiled with how loosey goosey we can be with him. (For example, we have Sharpie markers laying around in various places in the house that Leo has never messed with except on paper.)

Anyway, I'm done shopping and when I get to the check-out, I realize Leo is not behind me with his little cart. So I leave my cart and go look for him. I find him shortly and he is coming up the lane towards me because I called to him with my 'stern-mommy' voice, right? He stops at the fruit snacks (placed just so every kid has to walk right by them to get to the check-out) and picks thru them to get one. I'm Ok with that because I know he's hungry. But when he picks one and walks closer to me, I realize he's got something all over his face. Uh-oh...

So I ask him, "Leo, buddy, what's all over your face?" He smiles and sweetly tells me it's ice cream. Hmmm. At this point, I just want to get him out of there and, frankly I'm also trying not to laugh. So we walk the few steps to the cart, halfway unpacked at the cashier. She's laughing when I explain to her that there might be some kind of mess behind us for a nice person with a mop to clean up.

I turn to monitor that Leo is still behind me but...he...is...not...again. So I give her the 'just one minute signal' and jog off to find my errant kid. I come around the corner of one of the lanes and find out where he got the ice cream that's all over his face. When I get 2 feet from him I realize he is not taking something from the freezer with single serving ice cream treats, he is putting something back that he has apparently been working on already!

For a second I wasn't sure which lesson I wanted to impress upon him while he's redhanded with the ice cream treat. (And, by the way, the kid's got good taste. Ben & Jerrys chocolate-cherry drumstick. Yummy!!) Not taking things from the store without asking? without paying? or taking bites and putting things back?


"Buddy, that is not OK! It's not OK to take things from the store we haven't paid for!" He is immediately contrite. "I'm sorry, Momma." Until we get to the cashier with our partly open drumstick (the cashier is clearly tickled and thinks this is hilarious and really, so do I). He giggles as he tells the cashier he's sorry because she can't keep a straight face at all and isn't even trying.
I realize that until we get to a quiet place alone, all lesson is lost, so I hastily pay for our stuff, including the delicious ice cream treat, and hustle us to a table nearby in the community eating area.

I may have salvaged the lesson, who knows? I thought about paying for the drumstick and throwing it away because somehow I wasn't super comfortable letting him have it. I didn't want to condone what he did, but the damage was done and I figured the only way to salvage the situation was to enjoy the treat together and talk about it. So that's what we did. It turned out it was a nice few minutes of break with my beloved son sharing the treat.

Ah, parenting. I used to think skydiving was adventure.
warm thoughts to all...