Instead of having fish tonight for dinner we went to Cracker Barrel. No real reason for it other than I was terribly disgusted by the very notion of eating fish and desperately craving steak. It was a mood thing, I guess.
Anyway, we ate dinner and afterward I was sipping a cup of tea when K. started licking the lemon wedge that came with my tea.
Now, when she was a baby we let her lick the lemons because what better way to teach a child that's not the most yummy thing to do, right? Also, the face the kid makes afterward is always funny, and it only gets funnier with the second, third, and even fourth times. It's a learning process and some kids aren't always quick on the uptake. K. was usually pretty quick to decide lemons were not good eating, but for about a year it was always something she had to try again the whenever she saw one.
So tonight A. and I are sitting there looking at K. like she's lost her ever-loving mind, 'cause lets face it, someone reaches over and picks up a juicy wedge of lemon and starts licking it and you can't help but wonder if maybe they have a screw working itself loose. Of course, the eleven-year-old girl child bursts into a fit of giggles and "What??"s accompanied by a few "it's good!!"s.
Now, when she was a baby, it was her father that tormented her as all parents torment their babies. He'd be the one to put the lemon wedges within her tiny little reach. He'd be the one that, after she told him she hit her head on the wall, would ask for a demonstration knowing full well that she'd give it... five times. He'd be the one that would tell her things like pictures were always in color but before a certain year the world was in black and white... and in some areas of the world the color fades, reverting back to black and white until some technician somewhere refilled the color toner cartridges. Ever read "Calvin and Hobbes"? Calvin's dad was the inspiration for many of A.'s amusing little tortures.
Seeing how A. wasn't jumping on this giggling eleven-year-old sucking on a lemon thing with both feet, I figured it was my turn. I offered K. just a bit of sugar on a spoon. Being an eleven-year-old girl deep in puberty, she took it. I told her to chase it down quick with a suck on the lemon she had... and she did it, much to our amusement. After a few minutes I repeated the offer of sugar with another suggestion of a lemon juice chaser... and she took it and did it again. It only happened once more, but only because she'd sucked all the juice out of the lemon and A. really wanted to leave the restaurant.
Well, almost all of the juice. Just before we left the table she took that poor little lemon wedge and squeezed it for all she was worth. It gave her very little juice -- it didn't even fill the spoon halfway -- and what did my darling little girl do? Yup. She stuck that half a spoonful of pure lemon juice in her mouth.
I'm not sure which was funnier, the face she made with the sugar/lemon juice combo or the pure lemon juice.
No, I stand corrected. The face with the pure lemon juice was far funnier.
And now she has requested that I pick up some lemons next time I go to the grocery store. Seriously. The kid wants lemons on a daily basis. And she wants to try a lime, too.
Well, it is a fruit and it's not like she's going to eat too many of them and I can think of far worse things for her to be begging for, so what's a mom to do? I don't know about other moms, but I put lemons on the shopping list for later this week.
Anyway, we ate dinner and afterward I was sipping a cup of tea when K. started licking the lemon wedge that came with my tea.
Now, when she was a baby we let her lick the lemons because what better way to teach a child that's not the most yummy thing to do, right? Also, the face the kid makes afterward is always funny, and it only gets funnier with the second, third, and even fourth times. It's a learning process and some kids aren't always quick on the uptake. K. was usually pretty quick to decide lemons were not good eating, but for about a year it was always something she had to try again the whenever she saw one.
So tonight A. and I are sitting there looking at K. like she's lost her ever-loving mind, 'cause lets face it, someone reaches over and picks up a juicy wedge of lemon and starts licking it and you can't help but wonder if maybe they have a screw working itself loose. Of course, the eleven-year-old girl child bursts into a fit of giggles and "What??"s accompanied by a few "it's good!!"s.
Now, when she was a baby, it was her father that tormented her as all parents torment their babies. He'd be the one to put the lemon wedges within her tiny little reach. He'd be the one that, after she told him she hit her head on the wall, would ask for a demonstration knowing full well that she'd give it... five times. He'd be the one that would tell her things like pictures were always in color but before a certain year the world was in black and white... and in some areas of the world the color fades, reverting back to black and white until some technician somewhere refilled the color toner cartridges. Ever read "Calvin and Hobbes"? Calvin's dad was the inspiration for many of A.'s amusing little tortures.
Seeing how A. wasn't jumping on this giggling eleven-year-old sucking on a lemon thing with both feet, I figured it was my turn. I offered K. just a bit of sugar on a spoon. Being an eleven-year-old girl deep in puberty, she took it. I told her to chase it down quick with a suck on the lemon she had... and she did it, much to our amusement. After a few minutes I repeated the offer of sugar with another suggestion of a lemon juice chaser... and she took it and did it again. It only happened once more, but only because she'd sucked all the juice out of the lemon and A. really wanted to leave the restaurant.
Well, almost all of the juice. Just before we left the table she took that poor little lemon wedge and squeezed it for all she was worth. It gave her very little juice -- it didn't even fill the spoon halfway -- and what did my darling little girl do? Yup. She stuck that half a spoonful of pure lemon juice in her mouth.
I'm not sure which was funnier, the face she made with the sugar/lemon juice combo or the pure lemon juice.
No, I stand corrected. The face with the pure lemon juice was far funnier.
And now she has requested that I pick up some lemons next time I go to the grocery store. Seriously. The kid wants lemons on a daily basis. And she wants to try a lime, too.
Well, it is a fruit and it's not like she's going to eat too many of them and I can think of far worse things for her to be begging for, so what's a mom to do? I don't know about other moms, but I put lemons on the shopping list for later this week.
