Quick! Take Off Your Hat!

All three of the kids wandered into my bedroom at 7 something this morning.  (Allan was working.)

"I'm hungry," said Claire.

"Well, what do you want for breakfast?" I asked.

"Doughnuts!" said Corrine, "Can we go to town and get doughnuts?"

"Hmmm.  Well...sure," I replied.  "Go get dressed."

They all scurried off and got dressed.  This is what they chose.

If I had been doing the choosing, I definitely would have chosen differently.  But they were quite pleased with themselves, so I decided to let it go.

On the way to town, Brandon and Corrine argued about which doughnut shop we should go to.  I flipped a coin, while driving, and Brandon won. 

We sat in the doughnut shop and munched on our sugary treats while Brandon perused the Photo Ads, looking for a dog to buy.  He found some Queensland Heeler puppies.  "Momma, look.  They're only 275 dollars.  That's not too bad."

"I know.  Someday."

After our leisurely breakfast, the kids asked if we could go to the library.

"We can't.  It's too early; they're not open.  But I wouldn't mind stopping by the grocery store and picking up a few things."

"Yeah!  The grocery store!  We wanna go!"

I rarely take all three kiddos with me to the store anymore.  It's just so much easier to shop with Claire while the older two are in school.  The older two tend to get hyper, but I figured it wouldn't hurt for me to cut loose and let them live a little.

We pulled into the Albertson's parking lot and went inside.  We grabbed a cart and headed for the produce section.  While I was bagging tomatoes, I told Brandon, "Why don't you find the onions?  I need an onion."

He skipped off and quickly found the onions.  "Here!  Over here!  Here are the onions!"

"Ok.  Calm down.  I'm coming."

An older lady was selecting onions as well.  Brandon grabbed two onions, twirled around, waving the onions in the air.  "One or two?  Do you want one or two onions?"

"Just one.  But calm down, you're going to---"

An onion went flying through the air, hit the ground, and rolled under the display case.  

I dropped to my knees to retrieve the onion, discovered that it had rolled too far under, then stood back up.  I took the other onion from his hand and put it in the cart.  Brandon continued to stand there staring at his hand.  In his palm, where the onion should have been, was the brown outer skin of the onion.  He stared at the onion skin and started muttering.  "This is embarrassing.  This is really embarrassing."

I concurred.  "Maybe next time you could just get an onion and not be so wild."

"This is embarrassing."

We walked on to the meat counter.  While we were waiting for our order, the older lady from the produce section pulled up next to our cart.

"Hi, girls.  What are you doing today?"

Two sets of eyes stared blankly.

The lady smiled and asked again, "What are you girls doing today?"

More blank stares.

"I have grandchildren, and I miss them.  You have a lovely family," she smiled, nonplussed by the continued blank looks.  I took pity on the lady.

"Corrine, why don't you tell her where you went this morning?" I encouraged.  

"We went to the doughnut shop," Corrine whispered.

"The doughnut shop.  That's nice.  I have my doughnuts right here," she said, gesturing to her cart.

She talked a little while longer then moved on.  I caught Brandon smiling widely as she left.  I looked at him, puzzled.

"She didn't even recognize me," he grinned.  "I took my hat off, and she didn't even remember me."

I snorted. In your dreams, onion boy.

We finished our shopping and headed out to the car.  As I was putting the groceries in the trunk, I saw the dear old lady 20 feet away.  

"Quick!  Take off your hat! Take off your hat!" Brandon stage-whispered to Corrine, as he snatched his hat off again.  

The lady walked past, pushing her cart toward the cart stall.

Brandon grinned triumphantly, "See, she doesn't even recognize us,"

Snort.