They Knew What They Wanted
Wednesdays are new comic days. We usually go to a certain pizza place for a quick dinner, then to the comic shop to pick up the new titles. G. Grod wanted to do something different from pizza, though, so he drove to another nearby restaurant. As he pulled in, 4yo Drake’s voice rose in a shout, “NO! Pizza!” Surprised at the immediate vehemence, G. tried to reason with him. Then he pulled out of the parking lot, drove to the usual place, and as we pulled in the parking lot 19mo Guppy grinned, clapped his hands, and said, “Yay! Pees-ah!” over and over. Children love routine, and we learned not to mess with it last night. And we got a free pepperoni kids pizza when the kitchen had an oops, G. and I tried a very good salame e funghi pizza with LOTS of garlic, so things turned out well.
At the comic shop, Guppy insisted on being put down, not carried, and proceeded to run four laps around an aisle. I picked him up again before damage occurred, but he lunged toward a plush character, grabbed it and began yelling “Muh-tee!” (Monkey) He clutched it to his heart, then pronounced “My muh-tee” and was so absurdly cute that we could hardly deny him the toy.
Meanwhile, I tried to interest Drake in the very nice and inexpensive first volume of the graphic novel starring Guppy’s “monkey”, but he was having none of it. Instead, he picked out and insisted on the second volume of a teen girl’s manga title; we grudgingly bought him the first volume a few weeks ago. “Let the kid get what he wants,” laughed the owner, as I grumbled and wrote out the check.
Yes, we could have protested, but why? Guppy clearly was enamored with the toy, as Drake was with the book. And all of us enjoyed the pizza. It is more clear than ever to G. Grod and me who is in charge at our house. The animals are running the zoo.