Like taking candy from a baby

It is Wednesday evening and Jo, Vivian, and I are hungry and unprepared to cook at home. So we go to EZ's, the local eatery and brick oven down the street. Once we arrive, we realize our mistake - it's Wednesday - kids eat free. Every kid in a 50 mile radius is in there.

We run into Sharon and Essy and chat for a few minutes till a booth opens up and we grab it. Soon, Vivian realizes that if she stands on her tip toes and looks over the back of the booth, she can see the little girl (about 5-6 years old) in the booth next door. Vivian starts smiling and waving and making cute faces at her.

There's this guy who is walking up and down making little sculptures out of balloons and selling them to kids (a bit like a crack dealer at the local AA meeting). The kids are down with it and the parents are shelling out whatever to keep junior from losing it in a restaurant. The parents in the booth beside us buy two beach-ball type balloons for the little girl and her brother.

We eat. Kids scream. I think about how I'd rather be on a road trip to Nebraska with Quinn and Kai and Devyn and Grace and Eva in a Yugo then here. And Vivian keeps smiling and waving between mouthfuls to the girl next door. Then they finish eating and get up to go when the little girl comes over and offers Vivian her beach ball thingie that her dad has just bought for her. Vivian shamelessly sticks out her hands and accepts this ball that is bigger than her. Jo tries to protest - though somewhat weakly as she realizes how quickly Vivian is getting attached to said ball and anticipating how much louder our kid is going to scream when the ball is taken away from her than all of the other kids at EZ's put together.

So we thank them profusely and Vivian is now a proud owner of some other kid's new toy. I try to moralize about it, but decide instead that I'm going to to hang out at Tiffany's tomorrow with Vivian. May be the same little girl will be there with something nice her dad just bought her...