Banana Shenanigans

If you decorate fruits or veggies with colorful stickers or tattoos, your kids might be more likely to actually eat them.

(True story.)

Or just add chocolate. You're guaranteed to watch the food disappear.

(Truer story.)

There is a tale behind this photo.

Yesterday at the grocery store I picked out two perfectly, slightly-green-but-not-too-green bananas. Oh wait. Back up. As I, & my duo of children, enter the grocery store, the girls start arguing about who is going to push the cart. They both decide to push it together. I know it looks "cute" on the outside. But it's all defiance on the inside. One hoping the other will back down, so she, alone, can reign supreme the Master Cart Pusher. 

Mwah-ha-haaa!

Whatevs. I got groceries to get. And with that, I snatch the cart.

So, anyway, Pazely decides she wants a banana of her own. She finds the tiniest one she can, & carefully places it in the shopping cart. And then Zoey wants to pick her own banana, too, so she grabs one from a bunch. It's not as small as her sister's banana. And Pazely is sure to point that out.

I'm trying to not have a complex about having 4 random bananas, two of which are lonely & detached, scattered about my cart. What if "the grocery people" think I'm one of those ladies who picks over all the bunches of bananas & chooses only the ones that are her favorite? Like, the ladies that refuse to take a whole bunch of bananas because one in the bunch might be bruised. So she'll pick & choose & start pulling apart the choicest of all the fruit for herself. 

*Do these kinds of ladies even exist?*

I finally decide I don't care. 

Besides, Pazely & Zoey are standing there staring at me.

Fast-forward to this afternoon... 

At home, Zoey grabs a banana to eat, & cuddles on the couch next to me to munch away at her fruity snack. Pazely strolls downstairs. Seeing her sister eat a banana makes her want to eat a banana too. 

Naturally. 

But when Pazely walks into the kitchen, to grab her tiny banana, it is not there.

Zoey had accidentally grabbed it. And was eating it.

*insert daunting music*

Pazely: "Zoey!!!! What banana did you take??!?!?!" 

(She knew which banana Zoey took. She just needed the confession.)

Well, all forms of craziness happened next. Which led to Pazely screaming & crying & stomping upstairs. All the way to her bedroom she wailed "Zoey took my tiny bananaaaaaaaaa! She stole my bananaaaaaaaaa!!!!!" 

I turned to Zoey & asked, "Why did you take her banana?"

Zoey replied, "Mom! I didn't know it was hers. I just grabbed one."

"Well, honey, you know how she feels about tiny things."

Seriously, the girl, from birth, has had an affection for all things little & minuscule. If you want to brighten her day, her week, her life, just give her something oh-so itty-bitty. She will love you forever.

As a toddler she constantly had her hands full of wee-sized toys. She carried them around WHEREVER she went. Now she totes them about in purses or backpacks.

So, back to the bananas...

I remember seeing something on Pinterest about tattoos on bananas. So, I grabbed my glittery Hello Kitty rub-ons & decorated that yellow fruit like nobody's business. Not HER banana of course. This one was maybe a 1/2" bigger. 

Heaven forbid. 

*eyeroll*

I presented her with this banana &, wouldn't you know it, the smile reappeared on her lovely freckled face. The real reason Pazely ever eats a banana is so she can have chocolate. (Second to tiny things is her passion for chocolate.)

And, well, you know the rest of the story...

♥