The Kid, the Boss, and the Incorrigible Nanny

Part Seven

There was a problem.

Lunch had been a really wonderful time. Kid had taken Aiden to a little tea and sandwich shop where he had stared at the towering wall of tea options in awe for several minutes. Kid took down at least twenty different sample jars and opened them for the boy to smell the contents. Once he tired of this, they ordered their meals -- a salad for her and a grilled cheese for him -- and sat staring at a cabinet full of different tea sets they'd had for sale. He had pointed at every pot and informed her of their color: "That bwue, that wed, that one lello" and so on, to which she applauded appropriately, praising his brilliant intelligence. 

As promised, after lunch she took him to get a scoop of ice cream -- "Chocowate" -- which he devoured and only managed to get one large drip of on his blue shirt. "Uh oh," he'd said in a sing-song voice, politely allowed her to wipe the chocolate off with a napkin, and then resumed eating the treat. 

Kid enjoyed listening to him talk. Rare as it had been, his talking had increased dramatically throughout the day. Listening to him, she recalled something that his father had said. Was it true that Aiden stopped talking when she hadn't been at work? Her heart squeezed at the thought, and she was happy to bond with him over smelling teas and eating ice cream.

Further bonding over food, it seemed, was not going to happen.

Well, at least it wasn't likely to happen today. 

They were standing in the frozen food aisle at the local Stop Mart, and they were at a standoff in what was proving to be a grocery shopping war.

Was this what it was like to be a parent?

"No." Aiden was standing, arms crossed, with a determined look on his face. 

Kid, the nemesis in this particular showdown, stood opposite him with two bags of frozen corn in her hands. Next to her, the cart sat with a small mountain of previously debated items. She wasn't sure that she was going to win this battle; in one corner of the cart she had managed to stock some apple sauce, some oranges, milk, and eggs. But another corner of the cart -- the one that Aiden had been adding to -- held chocolates, frozen pizzas, frozen french fries, frozen chicken nuggets, three different kinds of ice cream, two boxes of cake mix,  Pop-Tarts, and assorted Lunchables packs. 

She had given him too much power.

"Aiden, you have to have vegetables." She was doing her best to keep up her happy teacher voice, but after spending the better part of an hour patiently asking him if she could add healthy foods to the cart, it was becoming difficult.

"No." He closed his eyes and turned his face away from her.

Yes, the power had gone to his head. There was a lesson to be learned from this, she knew. But right now, biting her lip to keep herself from being terribly annoyed at his display, she didn't know what it was.

Lord, help me. 

If she was expecting an angel to come down from the fluorescent heavens above, playing a harp and telling Aiden to behave, she would have been mistaken. On the other hand, an idea did occur to her.

"Fine. Can I have them for me then?" She stood perfectly still, a smile on her face and only the slightest edge to her voice.

He thought about it for a few seconds. Finally, unfolding his arms and looking very proud of himself for being the winner, he nodded. 

Kid should have been ashamed. She had just been bested by a four-year-old.

Or so he thinks, she thought, dropping the vegetables into the cart and pushing it out of the aisle. He scurried to catch up to her. So he thinks.