The Shocking Truth

Well, my friends, time to take a little break from all the creative talk and share a random moment from my week with you. This one has to do with my Ella . . . oh, how I love this girl.

Ella doesn't start 4 year old preschool until the Tuesday after Labor Day. So, while sister Katie leaves us at 8:45AM and doesn't return until 4:00PM, Ella and I are able to spend a great deal of quality mommy and daughter time together. I'm absolutely loving being at home with the girls the past month. While there are plenty of downsides to losing my job (lack of finances tops the list), the upside clearly is this time with my girls. I have said it before, that I just feel like this fog has been lifted. I am enjoying all the little moments with them that I missed before. And it's not that I missed them because I wasn't physically there . . . I was physically there. I missed them because my mind wasn't there. My mind was thinking about the stresses of my job, worried about projects or productivity, wondering what would be waiting on my desk when I return from days off. All of it.

But I am blessed that now, I can focus. Clearly. On them.

So, one day last week Ella and I decided to take a visit to Starbucks. Oh, yes, my visits there are few and far between now that I am not working. But on this particular day last week, we just needed a Starbucks trip. And here, at Starbucks, is where the truth came out . . .

It started as such a lovely morning. We decided that we would sit inside this day and talk . . . you know . . . like big girls do. We also decided to have a little treat with our beverage. Ella chose the pink glazed mini-donut, and I picked a piece of banana chocolate chip cake.

We had a lovely time and talked about our recent trip to New York, cousin Carlo, what it will be like when school starts, and who our favorite Disney princess is. You know . . . important stuff. We looked out the window as cars went in and out of the drive through and guessed what everyone was ordering. We had a really wonderful time.

She loves her chocolate milk. I love my coffee. And then . . . I started to share my chocolate chips with her. You know . . . those that sit so gently on the top of the bundt cake? That are just perfect to pick off and share with a loved one? Yes . . . I share my chocolate chips with the ones I love. Of course. But Ella, she stopped me.

In the middle of my delivery of the finest thing in the world (the chocolate chip). . . that's when it happened. The shocking truth. Brace yourselves, friends. This one might just bring you to the edge.

"Mom?" Ella said, "I really don't like chocolate." (See . . . below? The chocolate chips are just sitting there. Waiting.) "But Ella," I said, "you like chocolate milk, don't you? I mean, you drank your chocolate milk. What do you mean, 'you don't like chocolate'?"

"Yes," she answered, "I do like chocolate MILK. But chocolate CHIPS. . . nope. I don't like them Mom. They kind of make me . . . crazy. Like this . . ."

And with that . . . I finished my own chocolate chips.

What can I say? She's only 4.

Perhaps this is something she will grow out of. God willing. ; )