Today, I wasn’t planning on going out anywhere as yesterday we had a fun day at La Cantera, an upscale outdoor shopping mall. Niko and I were in our usual Sunday positions on the sofa and Nina was in the office doing some sewing. She has to keep the door closed because we don’t want Riley cat going in messing up all the fabric and supplies in there.
I was minding my own business by reading an eBook about Rickey Henderson and Niko was watching YouTube on the television. An advertisement came on the television showing a delicious looking chicken sandwich from (insert restaurant here).
A few days ago, he asked my what an advertisement was? I explained what it was and that when Nina and I were your age, we actually had to watch the full advertisement, we couldn’t just click a button to skip after 10 or 15 seconds.
As soon as it went away, Niko went into a LOUD repeating rant of, I WANT A CHICKEN SANDWICH! He expected me too immediately say of course and get one at (insert restaurant here). I was like, sure, but you have to come with me. I had it pinned down between (insert restaurant here and insert restaurant here). One of them, I knew if we went, I would end up getting a lot more food than just a chicken sandwich and the other one, I wasn’t sure how good their chicken sandwiches were as I wasn’t impressed with their chicken fingers.
Then, I had an epic dad fail and child meltdown. I told Niko that we have chicken made already from last night, and we can use a tortilla to make our own sandwich. Niko wanted no part of that it. Then, Nina came out of the office because she heard him screaming and put the gauntlet down and said no to (insert restaurant here) because no matter where we get it, it will be gobbled down in less than 2 minutes, is fried, and is full of grease – and that may cause a hurty stomach for him. I agreed with my wife.
The, I had an epic dad success. I said let’s go to CVS and get some hamburger buns for the chicken we made last night. That worked, except for the fact that when Niko and I were browsing the food aisles, no bread was found.
Niko suggested to try Walgreens, which was a few blocks away. The only bread they had were hot dog buns and sandwich bread – no hamburger buns. So, we got sandwich bread, some chocolate for Nina, and Niko wanted some more chocolate for himself and some orange juice. I got nothing, even though I had a prescription ready for pick-up and I wanted to look at sunglasses. I will do CVS on my own next weekend for meds and will order sunglasses online.
When we got home, I made a chicken sandwich on sandwich bread, and he gobbled it down, but not in less than 2 minutes. I also told him that the bread will be good for sandwich lunches at school this week and toast in the morning with eggs.
It’s fun taking him to CVS or Walgreens as he mostly knows what he wants and where it’s at. I do sometimes, have to push him away from the beauty or medicine aisles. Most of the other times we have been there, I give him a budget, so we don’t go out of control spending wise. He is always conscientious and sometimes a choice has to be made between food and a toy.
Last July, Niko and I went to Trader Joe’s, and I gave him free will with a shopping cart and a budget of $100, and I also won’t ask questions as to what he is getting. Well, he ended up spending $106 and I didn’t subject him to putting anything back to be on budget.
