Happy Birthday To Her
Conversation in Target this afternoon, as Bobbin and I were shopping for her cousin's birthday present. We were in the card aisle, which is Bobbin's second favourite aisle, with Shoes being the first favourite. She had already selected a book from the $5.00 bin, and I told her she only got to choose 1 thing. And so when she saw the sparkley Unicorn birthday card in the card aisle, this is what transpired:
Bobbin: Mommy, I want that card. Can I have it please?
Me: No. It''s not your birthday. We're here to shop for "S".
Bobbin: But MOMMY. It's a UNICORN and so sparkley. Please can I have it for my birthday?
Me: Sure, when you're 5.
Bobbin: No, Mommy, I want it today. You said I could pick one thing. I don't want the book mommy. I want the birthday card. Can I have the birthday card if I put the book back?
Me: Ummm... I guess so... but, what are you going to do with the card?
Bobbin: I'm going to Happy Birthday myself for my 4 birthday Mommy.
Me: But your 4 birthday is all done.
Bobbin: But I never got myself a card for it
We actually ended up leaving the store without ANY purchases including presents and cards for the cousin. See, once I gave her permission to trade in the book for a birthday card (naive me; I'll never make that mistake again) she decided she wanted to look at ALL the cards to pick out the right one for her. After 20 minutes in the card aisle without making decisions I forced her hand and told her if she didn't have a card selected by the time I finished counting to 5, we were leaving without anything. I got to 5, and she was still undecided on whether she wanted the sparkly unicorn, the sparkly princess, or the Hello Kitty card, or whether she wanted to keep looking until she found a card that sings. Yeah. No. So Iput down the basket full of presents and the cards that we had selected, and her book, and the sparkly unicorn card, and I picked her up and carried her to the car. She was sobbing. Not screaming. Not angry. But sobbing this heartbreaking sob, hugging me, and quietly apologizing profusely for her behaviour and promising to be a good girl and asking if she'd still get to go to her cousin's birthday and saying that she was sad because she didn't have a gift for him.
We had a looooong chat in the car, I drove her home, left her with Tim, and went back on my own :-)
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