Who Ate the Cheese?

It is starting to become quite the episode when my toddler and I enter through the mechanical doors into a world that Olivia loves - the unassuming grocery store.

She has been on a crusade of exploration. First (and still), it's her thumb in her mouth. Then to soothe herself, she started the habit of rubbing her ear. Next, it was down to sticking her finger into her belly button. It is an interesting show when she decides to do all three at once and it certainly shows that she is a multi-tasker.

At the grocery store last week, she was on to a new venture. She discovered she had a left nipple. Up went the shirt in the frozen food aisle. "What are you doing? Put that shirt down." She laughed of course, since she rarely takes me seriously and up went the shirt again. This happened all through the store, in the grocery section, the baby food aisle, the dairy case, the checkout line and then again out to the car. It was as if she discovered something amazing.

Today at the grocery store, I had it all planned out. I was going to buy a chicken tender at the hot food counter for her to eat while I shopped. I figured it would keep her occupied at least to the checkout lane. It went faster than I thought. So I looked in the cart for some food item she could look at, something that wasn't a jar made out of glass or a can that she could drop on my foot since I went through that experience a few months ago.

I found a block of cheddar cheese in the bottom of the cart. I figured she would look at it, admire it, and that would be that. I bent down to buckle my sandal, came back up and she handed me the cheese, only with a large exposed chunk bitten off plastic and all.

Lord does that child have some teeth.

I could have put it back but what kind of surprise would another customer have when they held up the package and a part of it was gone. Or, I could have given it to the cashier and told her I think they may have a mouse running about in the cheese aisle. Which I'm sure would have made the store and the Board of Health so happy. But alas, I'm too much of an honest person so I had to tell the cashier to ring up the cheese and immediately put it in a bag because, well, my child bit off the end.

But Olivia loves the grocery store and she is a very friendly baby when she is inside. She says a firm "hi!" to every customer who passes by our cart and if they don't respond, she yells after them, "HI!" until they say hello back.


I think her destiny is to be a greeter at Wal-Mart. I just hope they don't have any blocks of cheese there.