Dylan - 2, Costco - 0

About a month back, Todd wrote a post about a recent shopping trip to Costco with Dylan and her disgust with the employee checking receipts as they left the store. Each time we go to Costco with both the kids it is a battle to determine who gets to hand over the receipt as we leave and get the coveted smiley face on the back. It is not an argument I enjoy as it tends to erupt into tears and wails about the unfairness of life. Not ever a good thing with a two and three year old.

Yesterday I took the kids to Costco for lunch and to pick up a few things. We met my sister and two of her kids and had a nice lunch. They had done their shopping early, whereas we were doing our shopping afterward. We ate our lunches, said our goodbyes and the kids and I started off in the direction we needed to go. We quickly got the few items on my list and checked out.

This is where the whining starts.

Now that Costco has self checkout Dylan always wants to help. She is a fantastic helper and loves to do all she can to assist anyone and everyone. It's great and I sure hope it lasts. But, unfortunately, this day was not a good day to let a three year old scan items. Costco was busy. Really busy. I quickly told Dylan that she couldn't help this time, and explained why, and thankfully, she was content with my reasoning. As I finished scanning our items and quickly paid I suddenly remembered that I'm only going to get one receipt. And I have two kids.

This isn't going to be good. I know what happens when there is only one receipt and two kids. I've witnessed it far too many times. And it's nap time. This is going to be very, very, bad.

So in all my motherly wisdom, I look at my receipt, find the easiest place to split it in two, somewhere that won't cause any problems for the checker at the door and I rip the receipt in half. This of course was not Dylan's idea of a proper solution. She felt she deserved the whole receipt. I quickly gave her a choice of 3/4 of a receipt (the easiest place to split it, remember?) or no receipt at all.

She chose the portion. Good choice. Isaac on the other hand was thrilled to have his own receipt to hand to the lady, even if it wasn't really necessary for our checkout process. As we queued up (I love that I just used the word queue!) to exit the store, I noticed an increasing line behind us. We reached the exit and there was a lady I'd never seen before at the door. My guess is that since we normally go to Costco in the evening, this was an afternoon or morning employee so we didn't recognize her. Either way, I quickly explained that I've learned to give each of my kids the receipt in order to avoid the tantrum. She smiled, said she understood and told me that it was smart to pick my battles. She checked off our items and handed the kids back the receipts.

And then it happened.

Each child turned their receipt over to check out their newly acquired happy faces. And there wasn't a single one. If you were coming out of Costco yesterday at about 1pm, let me apologize now. You would have thought they were dying. The screaming, the crying, the moans and groans. They were not happy. I apologized, told them that maybe the lady was new and didn't know about smiley faces. I told them there was a long line and she didn't have time to draw smiley faces. Nothing worked. So, I finally gave up and told them if they stopped crying, I would draw them smiley faces on their receipts. And wouldn't you know? It worked!

We got back into the car, and I drew each of them their own smiley faces. Isaac loved his. Dylan, on the other hand, informed me that her's didn't have a head because there wasn't the all encompassing circle around the face and hair.

I don't think I'll ever win.

Nuclear reactor leaks in Southern California...

(California Vacation Update - staying at the beach)

Now I am no expert on the bible and other religious stories but I could have sworn I heard one about fish dying for no reason and floating up on the shore. It was the last thing I thought would happen as my wife and I were taking a late night stroll but all of a sudden hundreds if not thousands of fish started washing ashore. Some nuclear reactor up the coast must have leaked and killed all of these fish I thought. Maybe worse, this is my only warning of a pending tsunami headed our way. Then I noticed something even more odd. I noticed all the dead fish were flopping around and trying to get back into the water.

As strange as that was it kind of made sense. I mean if I were a fish out of water I would want to get back in too. What didn't make sense was why all the fish were coming out of the water in the first place. Were they lost? Was something scaring them onto shore?

Not growing up in Southern California or anywhere near the ocean I had never heard of this before. Not to worry I have been told it is completely normal. The fish are called Grunion and they do this every year.

To tell the whole story we had a head's up that this was coming. Nicole read a calendar indicating the California Grunion Run was scheduled for this week. Up and down the beach I could see about 50 people with flash lights and cameras all catching a glimpse. It truly was odd but at the same time really cool. If you ever get the chance I suggest seeing the Grunion Run yourself. Under the moon light I could see thousands of sparkling fish up and down the shore all trying to get lucky and then get back into the water.

From the people who know at Grunion.Org - "California grunion are a species of marine fish found only along the coast of southern California and northern Baja California. They are justifiably famous for their unique spawning behavior. Grunion spawn completely out of the water and lay their eggs on many sandy beaches in California. Shortly after high tide, on specific nights, sections of these beaches sometimes are covered with thousands of grunion dancing about on the sand.

I named this one Forrest.

Bug's Ear

On our way over to California we stopped for a potty break at a McDonald's. This had to be the only McDonald's for 100 miles in any direction because it seemed every traveler also stopped here on their way between Phoenix and San Diego.

While walking back to the car an elderly couple behind us asked, "Do you have twins?" After stopping to talk with them for a second while loading the kids in the car they gave several complements on how cute the kids were.

To Isaac - "Boy those blue eyes are going to knock out the girls later in life"

Of course Isaac replies by shaking his head up and down agreeing with the man. Isaac then points to Dylan and says, "That's my sister Dylan."

The man replies, "Yep she's as cute as a bug's ear too."

Dylan and Isaac both say thank you and we are back on the road. A few minutes later, Dylan breaks the silence by asking, "Mommy why did that man say I have a bug in my ear?"

We thought about trying to explain it but there are just some things that won't make sense for a 3 year old. I explained the man said she was cute and all was well.

Trigonometry

I know we've posted a bit about Dylan lately, but I want to make sure I write down the funny things she says. I'll make sure to post some about Isaac in the near future too.

Monday Todd and I were running errands and the kids were with us. We were driving through an intersection when I heard Dylan exclaim, "Look, a waterfall." She didn't say it very loud and actually the word waterfall kind of trailed off into silence. Todd quickly responded with, "Yes, it's a waterfall."

And this is how the conversation continued:

D: "It's not a waterfall, it's a fountain."

T: "Oh, sorry."

D: "Daddy, waterfalls come from rocks."

T: "Sorry." (I'm also quietly laughing and thinking our three year old just showed him.)

Todd also must have been feeling the same way because he followed up his apology with, "I'll make sure to come to you when I need help with trigonometry too." He was obviously feeling a little put out.

Dylan, not knowing about sarcasm, just sweetly said, "I'll help you with waterfalls and fountains daddy, don't worry."

To which Todd just shook his head and said thank you. What else can you do?

And the hair!!!

(Todd here)

Dylan was being her usual pain in the rear "I don't want to nap" self so I volunteered to take her with me for some groceries. Trying to distract her from everything that was making her grumpy I gave her the shopping list momma had prepared for us:

1. Tent & Sleeping Bags
2. Trail mix
3. Individual Cookie Snacks
4. Individual Fruit snacks
5. Liquid Soap

Off to Costco we went. Things went well. Dylan attempted to read items off the list as we went but basically just asked what was next and repeated it over and over until I picked one up from the shelf.

D - "Trail Mix."

D - "Daddy we're looking for Trail Mix."

D - "Trail Mix Daddy."

D - "Daddy how come you're not getting the Trail Mix?"

We were doing well but couldn't find the individual cookie snacks we needed for some upcoming road trips. I had to keep reminding Dylan to move onto the next item on the list as I couldn't find the cookies we wanted.

D - "Can we find the cookies now?"

T - "I don't think they have the kind mommy wants"

D - "That's ok daddy. We can get other cookies now"

This is how it went until we had everything except the cookies. I was able to distract Dylan a bit at the cashier by letting her scan some of the items and push the debit card buttons. We collected our receipt and headed for the door.

Costco generally has an employee who checks your cart and receipt as you leave the store. Most of the time they take our receipt and draw a little smiley face or stick figure on it for the kids. This time was no different.

Employee asking Dylan - "Do you want a boy or a girl?"

D - "Girl please"

The employee then draws a smiley face on our receipt (pictured above) and hands it back to Dylan. If you haven't looked at the smiley you may want to scroll up and take one more look. Dylan politely says thank you and we head out for our car.

About twenty feet outside the door Dylan screams out, "Wait!" I stop the cart and look at her asking what was wrong. "We forgot something." Frustrated that I am about to receive another lecture about how important it is to find the cookies I tell her, "I told you they didn't have any. We'll have to get cookies at another store." To which I receive the following reply:

"No daddy. She (costco employee) forget the nose and ears!"

Looking back at the receipt I discover Dylan is right. Dylan, now with a disgusted look on her face, adds one parting shout to the employee as I continue toward our car, "And the hair!"

Smurfies

Now, in case you're thinking this is going to be a post about cute, little blue, cartoon characters, let me just tell you how wrong you are!

This morning Dylan woke up and wanted Smurfies. Wha??

I asked again, "What do you want?"

And again she responded, "Smurfies."

I think this line of questioning repeated several times, and each time I would try to guess what it was she was asking for, and each time she would draw the word out a little bit longer hoping I would understand. By the end I believe she was saying, "No, mom, Smuuuurrrrfieeees."

That didn't help.

Eventually we got Isaac up and changed and it was time for breakfast. Again, Dylan wanted "Smurfies."

I finally got smart and asked her to show me. She got into the fridge and pulled out the strawberries, bananas, yogurt and orange juice.

The light finally went on.

My daughter wanted a Smoothie!

Last Day of School

Yesterday was Dylan's last day of preschool. She had such a fun year and loved going to school each week. Preschool was only one day a week and it was the perfect amount of time for her since she is still so young.

We met at school so the kids could show us the alphabet book they worked on throughout the year and for a special surprise their teacher had for us. Here's a picture of Dylan with her book turned to her favorite page...the letter E. She loves elephants just like her Aunt Jamie. She carries her elephant around wherever she goes.


After looking at her book Miss Sarah showed us a short slideshow she created using pictures of the kids she had taken throughout the year. It was so cute and the best part? She made a copy for each of the kids to have. Here is a picture of Dylan with her teacher. Dylan just loves Miss Sarah and can't wait to start going to school again next year.


After the video we all got into our cars to head to the pool to play and have some fun. All the kids had such a great time and we're going to have to go back to the pool again. We played and had a good time before saying goodbye for the summer. All in all it was a good first year of school for Dylan and I love that she's already looking forward to next year.

She doesn't look like she's having much fun in this picture, but this pout is
because I kept trying to get her to smile for the camera.