Sticky Fingers

The end of last week (Thursday and Friday) and on Saturday, I was in Wetland Science class that I am taking to get my PWS certification. I am such a science geek, I know. :) Anyway, the point is that I barely got to see Isaac over those three days. He was in good hands, but I may have left him stay up a little late and have some extra fruit snacks and Mickey Mouse time in order to win him over again when I got home.

It didn't work. He rebelled.

Yesterday, I met friends G and K in the City for some lunch, shopping, and Pi.er 39 fun. We took Isaac to see the sea lions and the boats and to get some sea food (for us, he had a hot dog). They had a kite store between the Pier and the Wharf (where the seafood markets are) and I wanted to get Isaac a kite and some more windup toys. Why kite stores always have those little windup toys, I don't know. But they do. And Isaac loves them, so much, in fact, that he leaves them in odd places, like under the recliner so that when we rock in it....CRUNCH. We went in the store, and I got him an AWESOME monkey kite where the bottom half of the monkey and his tail actually compose the kite tail. He wowed G and K with his animal identification skills (fishie! ooh-ooh-ah! pup-a!). I chose a few wind up toys and left him with G and K while I paid, happily playing with the vast array of wind up toys. I will say here that one of the toys he has at home is a small seal that spins a ball. He LOVES it.

We left the store and happily continued toward the wafting aromas of delicious fresh seafood. Suddenly, G says "Um, I think Isaac stole a seal...." Sure enough, there in his little sticky fingers is a seal exactly like the one he has at home. Sigh. I distracted him, took the seal away and put in a safe place to avoid breaking of stolen property that needed to be returned. In all fairness, I was convinced that Isaac just thought it was his toy from home. I can forgive that. He is little and doesn't understand that when companies make toys, they make more than one.

I happily continued on, brushing off my son's petty crime. I bought him his hot dog. I ate a crabcake. K got attacked by a rogue seagull who stole a fish stick right out of her hand. As I was cleaning the stray hot dog bun bits, crackers, and raisins from Isaac's stroller, I felt behind his back.

THERE WAS A CONCEALED WIND UP TOY BEHIND HIS BACK.

And this time I couldn't justify that he thought it was his toy from home, because it was this black fish one. And it wasn't even cool. Not the point, I know. But if you're going to steal toys, Isaac, at least steal cool ones.

Anyway, now I had two stolen toys to return. On our way back to the car, I popped back into the kite and in one breath said "MY-SON-AND-I-WERE-JUST-IN-HERE-TO-BUY-A-KITE-AND-HE-HAD-THESE-IN-HIS-STROLLER-HE-IS-ONLY-17-MONTHS-I-DON'T-THINK-HE-MEANT-IT-SO-HERE-THEY-ARE-I'M-SO-VERY-SORRY-THANKS-BYE!" The clerk yelled after me that it was sweet of me to bring them back and thanks for my honesty. Mmmm, yeah, bad juju toys aren't really my style. I am a firm believe in what goes around comes around. And I remember when I was little, I went to the grocery store with my grandma and I discovered the bulk candy aisle. I seriously thought the store was just being nice to kids, so I ate some. My grandma was MORTIFIED when she discovered candy wrappers in my fist and made me apologize to the manager of the store. I remember crying and being afraid I was going to jail. The manager was completely understanding. I never stole anything again.

So Isaac is just to little to understand that we have to pay for things before we take them home right?

Hmmmm....

I think back to some shopping trips to Tar.get when I had my massive diaper bag that I would throw into the cart. When I would pick up a small item, say an eyeliner, I would give it to Isaac because he got a kick out of throwing into the back of the cart and hearing me say how helpful he was being! And then when I would get home and unload the diaper bag, THERE WAS THE EYELINER. Strange coincidence? Or strategic throwing?

After this weekend, I have to wonder....

:)