Autumn's Surprise!

The Saturday before Father's Day Steve had to work, which left Autumn and I on our own. Not a big deal, we stuck to our usual routine, which includes breakfast, a little Mickey Mouse Clubhouse,  playing on the back porch, and then it was time to run a few errands. One of these errands included grocery shopping. 

Now, grocery shopping with a two-and-a-half-year-old is very different from shopping alone. From the minute you walk through the door the timer has started. Each child's tolerance for grocery shopping is different, and every mother knows exactly how far she can push it. The local grocery chain that I frequent offers a free cookie to every child, which is a saving grace, although I usually try to wait as long as I can before we stop by and pick up that little distraction. 

On this day Autumn was tolerating the store pretty well. She was sitting in the front seat of the cart helping me "drive" and hadn't yet started squirming or trying to climb out. I was feeling pretty confident we would both make it through the busy store alive, so confident that I stopped when I saw a table set up near the bakery section. The store was letting kids decorate cookie cakes for their Dad's for Father's Day. "What a great idea!" I thought. "Autumn has been so good, why not let her play with a little cake frosting for a while." Yep, sounds just like something I would say.

And play she did. Of course, she chose to decorate a cake that was already trimmed in chocolate frosting, which resulted in chocolate frosting getting all over her hands, arms, face and just about everything she touched. She also was not going to be satisfied until her Dada's cake had been decorated with every color frosting the store had to offer. 

She was so excited with her finished product! The entire time that the cashier was scanning our groceries and ringing us up, Autumn was explaining to her that she had a "Surprise for her Dada, and he is going to be SO excited!" She was so distracted she completely forgot to "color" with the electronic pen used to sign for credit card transactions. Besides getting a free cookie, that is Autumn's favorite part of the grocery shopping experience. 

On the way home Autumn asked me when she was going to be able to give her Dada his surprise and I explained to her that he would be home from work when she woke up from her nap and she could give it to him then. Needless to say, Autumn went down for a nap without a peep.

While she was asleep, Steve came home from work and saw the cookie cake sitting on the counter. I explained to him what it was and how excited Autumn is to surprise him with it. "Well, she's been asleep for a while, so she probably won't be as excited when she wakes up", he said. With that, he set off to her room to wake up sleeping beauty. 

Autumn was half asleep, eyes shut, brushing hair out of her face when she said, "DADA COME HERE!" and up she jumped from her bed. She grabbed Steve by the hand and walked him into the kitchen where she instructed him to close his eyes. I handed her the cookie cake and she placed it in front of him. And like the awesome Father that Steve is, he gave an award winning performance, pretending to be shocked by her surprise. Together they sat on the kitchen floor and ate chocolate frosting until their heart's content. 

It wasn't Father's Day yet, but it didn't matter, it was perfect.