This morning I was packing my snack suitcase (I have a lunch bag for snacks and a completely separate lunch bag for my actual lunch) and Eirinn saw me picking out mandarins. Of course, Eirinn being Eirinn, asked for an “orange”, even though she knows and I know and she knows I know that she doesn’t like “oranges”. Or mandarins. But whatever. I didn’t have time to explain that to her, so I just gave her one to play with.
First she threw it. I told her it was not a ball. She quickly turned this into a rule, shaking her finger, sing-songingly saying “Not a ball!”
Then she tried eating the rind. Why her face didn’t screw up into a clenched little sphincter due to the bitter and the gross, I don’t know, but it didn’t. So Anonymous Husband took it away from her.
When he left, I gave it back (don’t judge, I was busy and it was occupying her). She then proceeded to throw the mandarin in the coincidentally perfectly mandarin-sized space between the fridge and the cupboard.
Seriously? You really have to throw food in there? There are starving kids in China.
Couldn’t she be normal and throw crayons or shoes or rodents behind the fridge?
To be fair, I can see the appeal – toddler in possession of forbidden fruit (literally), gap just big enough to fit fruit, busy mom not watching as closely as she should. But, come on, let’s not waste the food.
