A Little Chat

Last Thursday, I took the girls for a late lunch at our local bagel shop. We got there after the main lunch crowd, so there were few other people in the shop and no line. I went up to the "order here" end of the counter to contemplate our lunch options. Meanwhile, Sugar decided it was time for a little "chat" with the clerk who was waiting for our order. Sugar grabbed a chair from a nearby table, pulled it over, and stood on top of it, so she could have a more "eye-to-eye" conversation. After she jumped up on the chair, she promptly, and quite enthusiastically exclaimed, "I'm Sugar!" The clerk, sensing Sugar's enthusiasm, promptly responded equally as enthusiastically with, "I'm Lisa". Sugar, now with her audience firmly in hand, proceeded to give her life story from her current two-and-a-half year old perspective:

"Ryan and Kayla got married."
"We danced."
"Sparkle's my sister."
"Slugger get on the bus, he goes to school."

All of this was accompanied by head nodding and facial expressions to convey the seriousness of her statements. After a couple minutes, my adult need for a little less talk and a little more food kicked in and I shooed Sugar away and ordered our food.

A couple minutes later, while I was waiting at the other end of the counter to pay for our food, Sugar decided to carefully select yet another chair and come visit. My first instinct as a mom was to stop her and make sure she wasn't causing a disturbance or hindering the flow of the still non-existent line. But, I realized, she wasn't really hurting things, and it was keeping her occupied. Plus, the clerk seemed reasonably amused by her antics.

This time, Sugar gets up, faces the clerk and promptly announces with a serious face, "Mom and Dad got married." I resist the urge to explain that this marriage wasn't a particularly recent event and just let Sugar do the entertaining. After another small chat, I collected the food and the girls and head to the door. As we leave and say our goodbyes, the clerk makes sure to say, "Thanks for making a quiet afternoon a lot more interesting."

"No problem," I say, "Life is always interesting with these girls around."