Whoa. Day 300 of me staying at home with Ellie has arrived.
Or at least what I'm believing to be day 300. Remember that tabulation is just
counting days on which I'm the baby's primary caregiver. Now, that being said,
there is every possibility I've miscounted at some juncture along the way. It
can get difficult to add one number to the total each day. After all, it's not
like I used to deal in numbers for a living or anything. Oh wait, I just
remembered I did in fact do that. Oh well.
While my primary duties as a stay-at-home dad is to take
care of Ellie, there are others responsibilities I (and Bethany) have entrusted
to myself. Laundry, dishes, and other housework are some of them. Another is
that I try to take it upon myself to help keep the house stocked with necessary
groceries. You know, if we have a quick errand that needs to be done in between
large shopping trips, I generally take care of it.
The thing about grocery shopping with Ellie is that
employees at all of the places I go are beginning to recognize her. In some
cases, the same person has seen her at least once a month since she was really
little. One of those places to which I'm referring is our local Aldi's.
A little background. It's common knowledge that all people
have a favorite snack. Me? I really like a good bowl of cereal. Ellie? The girl
is absolutely obsessed with Goldfish crackers. Somewhat ironically though, she
doesn't really like the name brand. She instead prefers the Aldi's brand which
is shaped like penguins. You're probably wondering how exactly I know this? The
name brand are much saltier than the Aldi's brand resulting in her normally
leaving some remaining in her bowl. That's never been the case with the Aldi's
penguins. They always disappear rapidly leaving Ellie begging for more almost
immediately.
Ok, after that little detour, I can now inform you that at
the top of the Aldi's shopping list today was Penguin crackers. In fact, I
decided to go ahead and buy two bags just to have some stockpiled. From the
moment I placed the bags in our shopping cart, Ellie was attempting to spin
around in her seat and reaching out for the bags of crackers. Honestly, that
was amazing in itself seeing that she remembered the bags to a 'T' after not
having any for over a month.
Once Ellie realized no matter how much she stretched, she
changed her plan of attack. She then went from trying to get the bag on her own
to guilt-tripping her daddy into giving it to her. And guilt-trip me she did. Between
the sad puppy dog eyes, the protruding lower lip, and the pitiful moans, I
finally handed one of the bags to Ellie for her to hold on to as we continued
throughout the store.
 |
| An approximation of Ellie's sad face. |
It wasn't long before Ellie and I reached the checkout line
to initiate our payment process and therefore exit the store (who talks like
that anyway? Initiate payment process). Once we got in line, I made my first
attempt to relieve Ellie of her precious cargo. Her response was to immediately
tighten her grasp on the bag. Of course, I didn't really take no for an answer
and tried again. Then Ellie proceeded to protect her prize by clutching it
tightly to her tiny chest and also leaning forward to protect it.
Once we reached the front of the check-out line, we were
greeted by our favorite check-out lady, one whose name I'm never able to
remember. I warned her that she'd need to scan the second bag of penguin
crackers twice because I didn't think there was any way I was getting Ellie's
bag away from her. Of course, she said that was fine and as I pulled our cart
around for her to load it, she asked me, "What do you think she'd do if I
tried to take it?". Now since we've seen check-out lady a lot and she's
always nice to Ellie, my response was basically that I didn't know but she was
welcome to try.
With that, she then began asking Ellie nicely for the bag of
crackers to which Ellie offered only a sideways glance. Then, she actually
reached for the bag. Ellie then turned to face the opposite direction and
curled up into a sitting version of the fetal position, all while clutching the
bag. With that, check-out lady laughed and initiated a peace
offering of handing Ellie the second bag of penguin crackers as a peace
offering. Ellie responded by quickly grabbing hold of the bag and offered
check-out lady a gracious smile as a thank you. With that, we left the
check-out line, bagged our groceries, and left the store.
Of course, I had to relieve Ellie of her prize before I
could put her back in the car seat. However, that was just a matter of saying
something along the lines of "Hey, look over there." Believe it or
not, that trick actually works pretty well on Ellie. As long as she's outside
that is. Silly, gullible baby. #DaddyWrite
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