Three-year-old wisdom

I decided to practice some escapism in the form of shopping today. I headed off to Target and the mall first thing this morning, with my three-year-old niece in tow. I wasn't too far down the road before I remembered what a tonic a young mind can be to a weary soul.

"La La" she said, about 1/2 mile down the road. "Are we at Target yet?"

"No, TT" I patiently replied.

"Got any toys?"

"Ah, no. Sorry."

"Got any music?"

"Well, sure!" I was pleased to be able to answer in the affirmative. This was shaping up to be a long drive. I hastily put in a favored mix CD of mine replete with David Cook, Reliant K and a little tobyMac.

A loud sigh came from the back. "La La, we forgot my van."

"Why do we need your van, TT? Isn't La La's just as good?"

"No. My van has kid music."


At Target, I almost immediately found some items sure to please my nephew (TT's brother) for Christmas. "Look at these! Don't you think Peter would love them?"

TT donned her most critical face. "He has plenty of those."

I was disappointed, but soon found something else. "What about this?" I proudly displayed my find.

Even more scornfully, TT replied, "He doesn't need that." She quickly added as I began to move out of the aisle, "but I do."

As we continued, many "I wants" were proclaimed. Seeing a moral lesson at hand, I firmly told her that La La never gave in to demands. She promised that she would not say "I want" again.

Next aisle over, a plastic doll started crying as we walked by. TT proclaimed, "Oh, I'd really like that!" Catching my hard stare, she said incredulously, "I didn't say 'I want'!" Clever.

Over lunch at the mall, TT overheard a post election conversation that I was trying hard to ignore. "I don't like Obama," she told me emphatically.

"Oh?"

"No, I wanted the duck to win."

Ahh. Sounded good to me, too.

She was so well behaved at the mall that I told her to pick out a book at Borders. She excitedly chose an Elmo sticker book. I got some coffee, and we decided to sit for awhile, sipping the sweet nectar of life and outfitting Elmo's room. "How do I do this?" she asked.

Organized, methodical me tried to explain that the sticker sheets had corresponding page numbers. "See, these stickers are for page 5, so Elmo can find books at the library." I helpfully put a book sticker on a shelf.

"No, it doesn't go there. It goes here." She turned the page and stuck the book in the middle of a corn field.

"Good thinking," I encouraged. Why not? It really was freeing to watch her put muffins in the art room and a shovel on a classroom shelf.

This trip was exactly what I needed today. Laughing at a chocolate tipped nose, chair-dancing to "Mambo Italiano" and playing Simon Says on the way home - this is the stuff that makes it worth getting up in the morning.

"Simon Says touch a tree!" TT commands as we drive down the road.

"Now how am I supposed to do that?"

"Oh well, you're out."