It's all in a day in the life of Annabelle

Friday June 5, 2009
We met Annabelle and Mommy at BJ’s after Granddaddy and I had gone for our usual morning walk. I wanted to check out the breaded eggplant I knew they had carried in the past. I love the Eggplant Parmesan that Spaghetti Warehouse has, and I almost never get anything but that when we make the long trip across town to eat there.

Annabelle’s Mommy had fixed an eggplant casserole for Mother’s Day because she knew I also liked the Michael Angelo’s eggplant casserole carried by Costco and sometimes Sams. The eggplant casserole on Sunday was the beginning of me trying to find an Eggplant Parmesan recipe such as Spaghetti Warehouse makes. There is a difference...one goes into the oven as a casserole and the other is served on the side with spaghetti and marinara type sauce. I like both, but since I was adventuresome and I had already had the casserole earlier, I wanted to try my skills with the eggplant on the side. Years ago, over the internet, I had found a knock off recipe for Olive Garden’s recipe that sounded like it would be comparable. I had already bought some eggplant and started on a mission to fix that eggplant from scratch. (Insert here, 'Granddaddy has never thought it necessary to try anything he considered as nasty as eggplant! Until he sampled some of the eggplant as it was frying at my daughter's house. Then he had a change of heart. He actually liked it...which I was so glad he did because he is going to be eating it in the future! Until I get sick and tired of it. I know, I know, poor Granddaddy! Phssst!') The knock off was indeed very good but it was a major time-consuming recipe much like my daughter had discovered about the one she fixed for Mother’s Day…delicious but very time consuming. So it was time for some adjustments to that time-consuming recipe.

I remembered BJ’s had carried those already cooked eggplant patties and that was my next quicker, easier way to prepare my eggplant, so it was off to BJ’s to find them. (Footnote here: They are really good. You can just pull out the number you need, pop them in the toaster oven for 5-7 or 10 minutes, serve them topped with a quick homemade (um hum out of the jar spaghetti sauce doctored up) and you've got a really great meal in a pretty fast hurry.) Really.

Since we now had frozen eggplant on our hands we had to abandon our original plans to eat at Cracker Barrel. I'm usually better organized that this, but hey, I was having one of those days, I guess, so we decided we would at least check to see if they still carried them and come back to get them after lunch. Then when we found them we didn't want to make another trip back over there after all and just decided to buy the silly things and eat at Golden Corral instead. Granddaddy would take the frozen eggplant by the house while Annabelle, Mommy and I concentrated on Annabelle's need to potty. But, I have to interject here that she was very good about 'holding' it until we were ready to leave the store. We all made it back to Golden Corral almost exactly the same time.

Bathroom adventures with Annabelle:
While at Golden Corral with Granddaddy, Annabelle and her Mommy, she had to go to the bathroom...again...so grandmomma was the designated “bathroom taker in-er”by Annabelle. I was hoping I would be able to miss this pleasure since her Mommy knew where the bathroom was and I didn’t. Neither Annabelle or her Mommy would go for that. They were in collusion. It had to be Grandmomma. When I'm around it's always, "No, Grandmomma do it." I am, indeed, a very lucky woman! But at least it gives her Mommy a much-needed break. I suppose.

I did my usual bathroom speech: “Annabelle, please don’t touch anything! Keep your hands off the walls, off the toilet, off the floors. Let Grandmomma put the paper on the toilet, please. Don’t touch! It’s nasty, really nasty! Please do, please don't, please, please, please…” all of which fell on deaf ears! She always attempts to speed clean every tile, every steel rail, the steel door, the entire toilet seat and every inch of grouted tile she can run her little fingers over. Today would be no different. And heavens forbid you should also need to use the potty! She loves working the lock on the bathroom door! With you on the throne. And she’s very, very good at working it. Thank goodness most doors open inward and not outward, so to leave the stall, I have to pull the purse holder which is high out of her reach. I fear that someday I may have to scream bloody murder trying to get myself out of those stalls...or make a cellphone call to my husband to rescue me...or worse yet, attempt to crawl out from under the door. But probably not as long as I have Annabelle with me.

Today this particular stall had water on the floor near the bowl. Why, you ask, would I pick a stall that had water on the floor when I had a 2 year old in tow? Because I love to see toddlers play in toilet water? I’m not really actually sure, except that we both were in a hurry and because of all my usual warnings to her, I simply didn’t notice the water on the floor. Sometimes that happens, you know. You just get distracted.

Anyway, I decided I would turn this into another learning experience, so I pointed out to her that there was water on the floor which we needed to avoid if we could because some other little boy or girl may not have made it to the bathroom in time and had accidently peed on the floor. We sometimes walk into stuff such as that and then when we put our shoes on or take them off, we have germs on our feet from this nastiness, therefore, the reason for not touching our shoes and certainly we don't put them or our hands to our face because we’ve come in contact with such germs through many means.

With that sweet little face, she looks up at me and asks, “Did I do dat Grandmommy?” I assured her she had not done that, unless she had done it when she made the first trip in with her Mommy earlier. Are you listening to me, Annabelle? Did you get my message about the germs? Probably not. She was too busy concentrating on the tee tee on the floor! Germs are such a minor consideration when you're worried about whether you had tee-teed on the floor! She was completely dry when I put her on the seat. Now I won't promise you she remained that way after pottying. Just kidding, she really was still dry.

Now I ask you, why do we constantly warn these little kids about not touching things in the bathroom. It’s always a given conversation between Moms/Grandmothers and their kids. (I even heard a mother or grandmother warning the little one she was with. Same conversation I had with Annabelle minutes earlier.I have to admit I was snickering behind the toilet door because I knew there on the other side was another little kid with totally deaf ears to what was being said!) So apparently some of them don’t listen any better than a certain little somebody I know. I think next time I’ll just say, “Annabelle, why don’t you clean up the bathroom walls, doors and floors for me while I’m getting the potty seat ready for us.” Do you think it might help her ignore all the nasties she gets into? Who am I kidding?

Purple Toenails:
We made our way to the outside to wash our hands. A lady had suggested I might need to get soap from a dispenser next to her since the one I was furiously pumping had nothing coming out. Annabelle says, “Why it empty, Grandmomma?” “Because other people used that sink and probably used it all up.” “But why?” We washed our hands to get all those nasties off, I put her down on the floor and while she’s still drying her little hands she looks down…at the lady who suggested we swap soap dispensers…and she spots something interesting...and she begins to tell me something. “She’s got purple polish on her toenails!” She did indeed have purple polish on her toenails. The lady laughed and said, “You noticed my purple toenail polish!” Of course she could have escaped with Annabelle at that moment because Annabelle fell in love with the lady’s purple toenails. Anybody who paints their toenails purple can’t be all bad now can they?

Still more adventures with Annabelle:
The day wasn't over. Mommy had promised Annabelle we would look for some new tennis shoes and sandals for her to wear this week end if she was good and stayed in the stroller. All went well until it came time to try on the shoes and she had to get out of the stroller to be sized. Then she was one excited kid to be loose and that was the end of the stroller until the end of the shopping trip. Actually, I think it was the end of the stroller for the rest of the day!

Mommy looks at the same shoes over and over each time we go shoe shopping, and tries them on her again and again just in case she hasn't grown a shoe size or two since we've been in the store and still has a problem deciding which pairs she wants. Let me add here, she could indeed grow a couple of shoe sizes as long as it takes for Mommy to make a decision. The decision of whether to buy the shoes or just walk out and leave them because something didn't satisfy Mommy about them. Me, I’m a 'get in and get out' kind of person. So, while Annabelle explores the store in between shoe sizing, and after tiring of running after her, I sought sanctuary in a nearby chair. Which she also decided she wanted to sit in. Then she found another one closer to the door, so now I had to watch after her there to make sure she didn’t escape. She was all over the store, back, front, up, down and all over it. Over to check out the bubble gum machines, back to Mommy and then she ran around two rows of shoes each time Mommy told her to try out the new shoes she was considering. Around and around and around she went. Just being the kid she is. Just watching her is completely exhausting. If only I had that much energy! But I’m glad she does indeed have it.

Finally several hours later Mommy picks up three pairs of shoes and buys them while Annabelle and I went outside to the mall and she climbed into every toy ride that charged .75 a ride. Thank goodness she doesn’t know you can make them run by adding money. Those things could break you. I know from experience with the three older boys.

Then Mommy came out and she let Annabelle play a while longer. Then it was back to the bathroom, naturally.
Oh, I am having flashbacks of her Mommy's first years of life.

At last we headed home for Granddaddy to feed Annabelle a bunch of junk food behind her Mommy’s back. No, she doesn’t get that at Mommy’s and she hadn’t had it before the shopping trip, so we can’t blame it on the junk food. She’s just a healthy, happy, busy, little girl.­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ I don't want her any other way, except maybe when she's here with...