Thou shalt not steal

Biscuit and I stopped by the store to buy a birthday present for a little friend of his a few weeks ago. We went to our usual shopping destination. And Biscuit called it before we even got to the shopping center.

As we leave day care, we go straight to go home and bear off to the right to go to our usual shopping destination. So as soon as the car bears right, he always asks what we need to buy at the store.

I had planned to explain the purpose our trip to Biscuit anyway, because we were going into the toy department, but we weren't going to buy anything for him. He seemed okay with the concept of it, but I was interested to see how things would actually go down in the store.

As we walked into the store, we stopped by the discount aisle up front. I was looking for a couple of little notepads, but Biscuit immediately spotted a horse. He asked if he could see it, and I thought it might make for a good distraction.

"Would you like to hold this horse while we do our shopping?" I asked Biscuit.

"Yes, pease," he said. "I like horses." (Quite an understatement on his part!)

We got the birthday present we were after, and Biscuit didn't ask for a single thing. We traveled on through the grocery section and got cereal and a couple of other things. Then we headed up to the cash registers.

I paid for our merchandise while Biscuit had a conversation with the lady in line behind us. Biscuit seems to have my gift of gab, so he doesn't meet too many strangers.

Then we headed out of the store to our car. Biscuit sat in the buggy seat as I transferred our bags from the buggy to the car. 

With the buggy empty, I started to scoop Biscuit out of his seat. Then I saw it. He still had the horse I told him he could hold as we did our shopping.

"OH, LORD!" I said. And with my Southern drawl, it sounded more like I said, "Oh, lowered." 

I am usually very careful about what I say in front of Biscuit. And although what I said wasn't horrible, it's still something I'd rather he not repeat (Lord's name in vain and all).

So of course he repeated it. Except he can't pronounce his L's.

So Biscuit said, while mimicking my drawl, "Oh, woe-word, Mom. Oh, woe-word."

"Don't say that, Biscuit," I said to him, which of course just encouraged him to say it more.

"What's wrong, Mom?" Biscuit asked as I wheeled the buggy around and headed back toward the store.

"We didn't pay for that horse," I told him.

"Oh, woe-word, Mom. We didn't pay for this horse. Oh, woe-word," he said.

We got to the customer service desk and I told the woman what had happened. She wasn't fazed in the least. "Do you want to buy it?" she asked. I told her I did want to buy it, then paid and left.

Luckily, the "oh, woe-word" comments didn't last past that night. And Biscuit has become super-conscious about us paying for our stuff in stores and restaurants.

Now if I can just keep from each him any other bad habits.