Life Lesson Month of July: Blog 2- Letters from Mom & Mimi

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