Survivor Part 2

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about my scavenger child: Isaiah. He loves to find food and eat it - no matter how old it is. Well, he has reached an all new level.

My MOPS group had a play date at McDonalds last week. All 4 children were with me because it was fall break. (By the way, does anyone else remember fall break? I keep sending my kids to school and the school keeps inventing reasons to send them back. Sorry, I digress...) Isaiah slept while the older 3 kids were eating. When he woke up they swept him into the play structure.

I try my best to not think about what might be happening in the play structure. They are designed to let really small children in only to a point. At that point there is some type of barricade that prevents them from going further. As long as Isaiah looks desperate enough, some other child will always hoist him over the barricade and he will find his way into the part of the structure that dangles 12 feet in the air. I keep telling myself that the equipment is safe as I see him waving from a place that there is no possible way I can get to. I at least had my older 2 girls with me. Whenever one of their brothers is in distress, they are always willing to drag them kicking and screaming and throw them down the first available slide.

Well, apparently, the girls threw Isaiah down a slide and failed to tell me. I was chit chatting with some other MOPS moms when I looked over and saw Isaiah holding 2 half eaten ice cream cones, licking from them both one at a time. I was horrified. When he exited the slide, I guess he looked up and saw all of the left over food that other kids didn't finish just sitting on the tables. He felt free to help himself to whatever he could find.

One of my MOPS friends saw Isaiah and told me that the ice cream cones belonged to her kids, but he could have them. I wish I could express how embarrassing it is to have THAT child. I have the child that steals food. When I took the empty cones from him, he started casing the food tables, looking for his next tasty snack. That's when we went to visit the food counter. Now I know why he always seems to have a runny nose.

The moral of this story is: If you see Isaiah at McDonalds, and your kids want to save their food for later, then you must hide your food in a location that Isaiah cannot see. Then, it may be safe. Some children aspire to be astronauts, some aspire to be firemen. My child aspires to be a homeless person.