Songs About Poo, Eavesdropping & Picking Daddy-lions in the Park

This morning left me doubled over with laughter as my daughter and I cruised around the local supermarket.  One of the best perks of my job is that I get quite a lot of time off.  Basically, now that I am a father, this means more DDT (Daddy-Daughter Time).  This morning we had a packed few hours ahead of us - grocery shopping, baby-chino (frothed milk with a bit of chocolate sprinkle) at the local coffee chain, a play-date with the park, a jump on the trampoline whilst daddy unpacks the groceries from the car, and then across the road to feed some birds for our friendly neighbours who are away on holiday.  The bird-feeding is quite an exciting little outing; my little one has to scoop live worms up out of a box and then flick them off a spoon into the birdcage.  I thought she'd be rather squeamish about dealing with worms, but like all animals, she seems to have a slight affection for them (shh, don't tell her why they are going into the birdcage!)

So, back to the first outing of the day, the grocery shopping.  Whilst trudging up and down the aisles, my daughter, like most other children, sits facing me whilst being pushed along with the food and home items as they progressively pile up.  About forty-five minutes into the shop, we were standing in the toothpaste aisle (it's not actually the toothpaste aisle, but that's besides the point; my little one and I were looking for toothpaste so that is what makes it the "toothpaste aisle" in my mind), when we came across a lady chatting on her phone.  The lady ends the call with the words: "okay Katie, see you soon".  My daughter pipes up "My mommy is called Katie!"  This elderly lady draws her attention away from the different sized and coloured pantyhose and looks in our direction.  My little one then slumps in the seat of the trolley and tells the lady that she is exhausted.  The woman, rather perplexed, agrees that shopping is rather exhausting and then continues to look for the correct colour pantyhose.  Her phone rings once again; "no, they only seem to have the shimmery black, not the plain black."  "That's so silly" is my daughter's response as she eavesdrops on yet another conversation.  The woman laughs and agrees, informing the person on the other end of the phone how silly the lack of choice really is.  The rest of the shop was made up of Christmas carols and random songs about poo.

Before leaving,  my daughter managed to attract a few more elderly folk who seemed to be rather taken with her friendliness.  It got me thinking, and probably for the first time, that my daughter is really friendly; at complete ease when she is around total strangers.  This is something which couldn't be further from me, genetically speaking, as I am rather introverted when it comes to being around folks I don't know.  This is a trait which seems to have been inherited from both her paternal and maternal grandmothers who are both extremely social.  It's odd, the people we live amongst generally don't talk to strangers; tubes, buses, trains all echo with silence; unless it's snowing or we are hosting an Olympics.

After that little rendezvous it was off to the park to pick and blow daddy-lions (dandelions).