Yesterday was truly a classic Bianca day. She slept in, til 9; then made it known that she was awake and that we should come get her. After she said 'mama, mama' she started immediately with the 'dadas'; meaning she wants to go outside. She drank her milk, we quaffed our coffee and tea and headed out for a morning swing and a croissant. Ewa and I had our
Napolitanas, hers with
crema, mine with chocolate. We got a third regular croissant for Bianca, who wanted none of it. She swung on the swing in the park until we got tired of pushing her and then we walked back to go grocery shopping.
Bianca loves to pull the little baskets with their nice handles and wheels through the grocery store. This is easy at
El Corte Ingles, where the handles are telescopic and on the same long side of the basket as the wheels. At our Saturday shopping place the handle is hinged on the opposite short side to the wheels, making it very hard for someone of her stature to pull it. She didn't comprehend the difference and tried to pull it the same way as her
El Corte Ingles basket and screamed every time it fell over. Ewa and I were trying not to snicker and tried to show her that it was easier to push than pull, but this was not the way the good lord intended grocery carts to move, according to Bianca, so she screeched at us and went back to pulling. She figured out how to keep the handle real low so the basket would stay on its wheels, she was set. She dropped in her basket what I gave her and strained across the entire back corridor, parting the traffic like Moses; pensioners, families and teenagers collectively sighed at her cuteness before their eyes turned to terror as she bore down on them, playing chicken with every oncoming cart 5 times her size. She never faltered, they always flinched. Partly embarrassed, but mostly proud of her tenacity I stayed a short distance ahead to ward off any impacts - she has a habit of looking around while walking forward and I didn't want her to face plant against a pallet truck or something.
She needlessly filled her cart with small cans of tuna that were at her eye level and then really turned it on in the cheese and yogurt aisles.Bianca, of course, was now hungry - having skipped breakfast - and proceeded to scream as I would not let her open the yogurts in the yogurt aisle. We decided we'd had enough of the game and picked her up, as she thrashed, so we could finish our shopping in under 90 minutes.
We got home and unpacked as she whined and said "um, um, um" - which is her-speak for "I'm hungry." She gobbled up her sandwich, we ate our lunch and headed out again to enjoy the sun and hopefully stroll her to sleep. She crashed and we turned around, put down the shades in her room, wheeled her in, and left her there to sleep.
After 2.5hrs we didn't want her to sleep too late so we went and woke her and headed out again. The park was full of kids and one had a small dolly stroller; a cheap, plasticky, tacky, pink stroller.
In our fair city parents are very relaxed. Kids 'borrow' each others balls and trikes and toys at the park; parents intervene if the kids get testy, but in general there is a fine sense of community. When Bianca isn't riding her trike, other kids will come up and ride it and as long as she doesn't notice and throw a fit, its no big deal. After all, she does the same to other kids little motor bikes and baby strollers. This stroller, though, must have crack laced handles. Every time the little girl who owned it would leave it, Bianca - or some other chica - would pounce on it. She pushed it up and down the step onto the play ground proper. She chased other girls when she wasn't the first one to it. The other little girl would finally notice, throw a fit, and some parent would return it to her; dealing with their own, now screaming, child. After about ten minutes of this we'd had enough. Ewa's friend Marta was telling us they had these strollers in the Chinese shop 150m away and that they were only 6 euros "that's only 5 dollars" she interrupted her stream of Spanish to say, in English, and then offered to give me the money to get it - one, she needs a currency value lesson and two, I don't need to take a loan to buy my daughter a baby stroller so she'll stop screaming. Though we swear we are not the type of parents who do this, we bought her the f%&E**king (I mean, 'broccoli') stroller. It was 8 euros and possibly the best money ever spent. She has not let it out of her site for the last 24hrs. She pushed it all the way home last night and pushed it all the way to the park and back twice today. And just like yesterday, whenever she abandoned it to lay claim to the swing - which she believes exists only to satisfy her dreams of going back and forth - some other little girl would snag it; hissy fit, stroller returned, stroller abandoned to go to the swing.... lather, rinse, repeat.
I want to open a stand, just off the square, and sell nothing but these strollers. You get a 5 minute free trial. No little girl can resist it and I can make a 1000% markup.
The stroller, with her 'bobo' in it.
