Thanks to a bum paw, still somewhat swollen from yesterday's IV mishap, I needed my daughter to drive me to buy more puppy crunchies, and to do all the lifting of the bag. When she arrived to pick me up, the text she sent to lure me to the car was something like, "help, I'm trapped in the car with a rainbow dragon!" I came out to find my favorite toddler in her rainbow rain slicker, but I didn't know where the dragon part came in. Apparently before I got there, she was roaring. I popped open the back door and said hello to her, and then closed it to climb in the front seat. As soon as that door clicked, she got very upset that her grandmother was there and then vanished. I had to lean back and reassure her that I really was in the car with her. Her patience and temper was pretty much exactly like that the rest of the trip. Feelings crushed in an instant, but fairly easily soothed.
We went to Walmart, because I know the big bags of Iams large breed puppy food that Saoirse mostly tolerates can be found there. (She hates everything else.) We walked into the grocery side, and since I needed a few veggies for the week, that was the direction we headed. The very first thing that cart-surfing toddler saw was a giant display heaped with apples, her very favorite chew toy. She immediately learned out, reaching with one grasping hand, and was heartbroken when her mommy said she already had apples at home. So I picked out a nice honeycrisp and tucked it in the upper basket, nearly out of reach. Explaining "we have to wait until we pay for it" went about as well as you can imagine. After a consoling cuddle, we hid the apple behind my purse a little better, but that smart baby knew it was there and kept going back to look. I had to stack a few Garanimals on top of it for extra camouflage before she stopped hunting.
I wish I had captured the look on her face when I pulled that apple from the bag in the trunk and held it where she could see it over the back seat. Grandma was magic in that moment. My daughter tried to suggest we wait until we were back at my house to give it to her, so she wasn't spitting out half-chewed pieces of peel in the car, but as I explained, it was too late. She had seen it, and we had an explicit understanding where that piece of fruit was going to go.
She only has a few words that she speaks, and you really have to know what they are to understand them at this point. Context is key. But she is so smart, and she is figuring out the world around her very quickly. She has a great memory for details, and her object permanence is developing. I know I'm biased, but I swear this is one sharp kid.
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