Hi Ellie!
Boy do I have a blog story to share with you today! Because of your creative imagination
you’ve made this week’s writing very easy for me! And besides, I love sharing you! Here it is:
Life Lessons Learned
#19: Not everyone is cut out to be a waitress… A 3 year old or me!
Well, let me start off by saying that when you sleep over
Ellie, life, as we know it takes on a different style! This last time that we had you for the
evening you decided that we were going to play restaurant lady and
customer. Since we have your
little kitchen already set up in our living room, all we had to add was a tiny
table and find you a notepad and pencil.
Once that was complete, it was time to play! When I asked who was playing which role, of course you said
that you would be the restaurant lady and I had to be the customer. So down the stairs I went to begin our
playtime selection. I came in the
front door, walked up the steps and waited for you to seat me… oh, and my two
pretend friends Devin and Gretel too.
El, you smiled sweetly at my choice and proceeded to take us over to the
couch and had me sit down. Then
you walked away to grab your pencil and notepad only to come back and say, “What
do you want?” My response was, “Do
you have a menu for us to look at because we don’t know what your establishment
has to offer.” Your first question
was, “What is an establishment?”
Of which I had to explain.
And your second statement was, “I don’t have one” (meaning a menu.) You then scanned every inch of the
living room and came up with your own delicious entrees. Without blinking an eye, you said,
“Mimi, you can have an egg sandwich or a chicken sandwich, or a shoe sandwich
or a chair sandwich.” Since I am
not too fond of woody food where a splinter could wedge itself between my
teeth, nor a food that holds strong pungent odors, I opted for the egg
sandwich. My pretend friend Gretel
copied me and my pretend friend Devin was a bit more daring and chose the
chicken sandwich. Your
response Ellie was, “Fine.” And
off you went to rummage in your refrigerator for two round white eggs. Once you found them, you placed each
one on a slice of plastic bread and set them inside a green serving tray. Watching you in action was
hilarious. Seeing that you also
had a plastic croissant on the counter I asked if I could have it, which
apparently annoyed you. I did not
expect your answer, which was a very forceful, “NO, you can’t have that!” And then you informed me, with a very
smug look, that it wasn’t called a croissant either but rather a roll. (Geez El, you made me feel like I was
in a Seinfeld Soup Nazi episode only in this case, it was the Croissant
Gestapo!) So I apologized and
asked if I could at least change my bread to a roll, which you nodded
affirmatively. You then
jumped/hopped across the floor and back to your little refrigerator pulling out
a whole plastic chicken (I kind of held my breath here because I wasn’t sure if
our role playing had changed. Were
you a waitress, a kangaroo or a rabbit?). As you pivoted, smiled, and skipped back over to me I was
relieved to see that you were still the waitress! Maybe a bit of an unorthodox one as you were waving that
chicken body to and fro like a glow stick that guides a jumbo jet in for a
landing, but no matter, still a waitress! And then an idea must have struck you because you ran
back, threw the chicken on the tray, got your notepad and pencil, returned, and
asked if we would like some french-fries.
When I said, “No thank you” you said that we had to eat them anyway and
ran back to your kitchen set.
Placing three fries on the green tray, you finally brought it over to
our table. Upon observing your
delicious items, I had to remind you that our waitress did not give us any
plate, utensils or napkins. Your
response Ellie was, “Oh.” And then
you picked up and took the serving tray with you; set it on the rocking chair,
found the items I requested and returned to place them on the table. Looking at the empty plates, I gingerly
asked you where my sandwich was.
You responded with a… “Ughhhhh”, and you skipped away to retrieve our
lunches only to return and dump them on our plates. Then you grabbed my plastic roll, looked at me, pretended to
bite the roll, giggled and tossed it back on my plate (Now that was sanitary! …
NOT!)! Knowing that my waitress
was getting a little testy, I kindly asked you if we could have something to
drink. In a very pleasant voice
you said, “Oh sure” and went to retrieve your notepad and pencil again. Now Ellie, from my vantage point I
could see all the beverage boxes you had lined up on your kitchen counter. So I asked you if the three of us could
have a grape juice drink. You
quickly scribbled something on your pad and then looked up and said, “Ahhhhhhhh
NO.” I said, “Ok. Could we have milk instead?” Again you went to pencil something down
and responded, “Ahhhhhhhh NO you can’t have that either.” Lastly I asked if we could have Apple
Juice. And for the third time you
repeated, “Ahhhhhhhh Nope! You
can’t have it just because you can’t have it!” Now that was such a strong statement that I dared not argue
it! So I asked you what you did
have to offer, as we were very thirsty.
You looked over at your kitchen set and thought for a moment before
answering with, “You can have Ketchup water.” Hmmmmm… now that didn’t sound at all enticing to my friends
or me but since your ‘look’ was very stern, we coward down and said that that
would be fine. Apparently my decision
appeased you because you then skipped off to get your little pitcher and three
Disney Princess cups. After
setting them and a two-inch plastic ketchup bottle on the green serving tray,
you picked it up and started carrying it over to our table. By no fault of anyone’s, it dropped
forcing everything to spill, roll and fall off the sides of the table. Like a child with ants in her pants you
jumped around and scooped up what you could and basically threw it back on the
table forgetting the protocol of a proper place setting! For some silly reason I then decided to
take a chance and ask you what your restaurant had to offer for dessert and you
said, “We don’t have anything.”
And I said, “But I see some bananas in your basket up by the counter
that look yummy and we would each like to have one.” And you said, “Welllllllllll… you can’t have those.” And I asked, “Why?” And you said, “Because you can’t!” So I said, “Then can I have the check
please so that I can pay the bill?”
And all of a sudden you got really, really happy and said, “Oh
sure!” And off you jumped
(tripping only once) in search of your notepad. When you found it, you tore off the top piece of paper,
which had many scribbly doodles on it, and handed it to me along with some
paper money that you found in a drawer.
When I asked you what the money was for you looked at me like I was a
one year old and said, “This is what you have to pay me Mimi. $5.00.” I responded with a “Wow! I am glad you are paying me to pay you! I like this restaurant and will
definitely come again.” You then
you told me to leave.
At that point we switched roles Ellie, me being the
restaurant lady and you being the customer. Long story short, every time I went to write something down
on the notepad, you had to fix it.
And every time I went to the little kitchen to get something you
ordered, you came over to help me, so much so that when it came time to serve
your table with the green serving tray, you did it yourself! I then reminded you that you and your
two friends had to eat the lunch I made and you said, “No thanks!” You then proceeded to tell me to
sit down and eat it, because you didn’t want to any more. Obviously it was time to close down the
restaurant and find something new to play!
So I guess my lesson learned Ellie is that at this moment in
time neither one of us would make a good waitress or a restaurant owner for
that matter. But playing this
make-believe game with you was so much fun and a wonderful forever memory for
me to keep in my heart. You know
El; there is an old saying that holds some truth. It is Practice Makes
Perfect. And something
tells me that you and I are going to have a great time practicing (We already
have the giggles down to perfection!)!
(After playing restaurant, we played school... this is you working on our science lab (looking into my plastic lawn bunny's ear!)
Love you Ellie-bean!
Mimi
