Joshua's Sad Ice Cream Cone Story

In a weird turn of events, each of my boys had a very sad situation involving ice cream cones in the past 36 hours.

Thursday has been family day since we moved back to Calgary. This is something that we started in Winnipeg on my day off from the church and we try not to schedule other things on Family Day so we can spend it together going to the zoo, or the park, or shopping. This week it was 32 degrees outside so we decided to take advantage of the wonderful air conditioned mall playground.

After a good time at the playground we stopped in at the food court for lunch. After lunch, Amber and Daniel went to Dairy Queen to pick up an ice cream cone for us to share. Josh had been asking for one all through lunch so I told him that we were all going to share a yummy ice cream cone.

"Daddy will have some"

"Yup!"

"And Daniel will have some"

"Yup!"

"And Mommy will have some"

"Yup!"

"And Joshie will have some"

"Yes please!"

So when Amber and Daniel came back with the biggest DQ cone I've ever seen, Josh was ecstatic. He was squirming to get out of his high chair. We passed it around and everyone had a little lick. When it was Josh's turn, I held it for him and he started to cry. He wanted to hold it. Well, I was pretty sure if he got his hands on this extra-large ice cream, it would be on the floor. So we ended up fighting for control of the cone.

He put up such a fuss that I let him hold it with my hands real close by to guard against any sudden droppage. When his turn was over and I had to take it away, you'd think I had pulled off a couple fingers with it. He screamed and screamed and cried. I realized that usually when we go for ice cream, the boys each get their own cone and Josh wasn't understanding this whole "sharing" thing. We tried a spoon and a litte dish but that wasn't good enough - this was his ice cream and no one should take it.

When it made its way back to Josh again, he started screaming and pushing my hands away. I tried to calm him down using logic.

"Joshie, do you want the ice cream?"

"YEEEAAAAAAAH! Waaaaah!"

"What do you say?"

"PLEEEEEEEASE!!!!! Waaaaah"

Okay, here you go

Through tears, a hoarse voice, full of emotion says, "Thank you. Gracias."

Well, this put me over the edge. I am laughing out loud at this situation. Josh is going through the worst trauma he could imagine and still managed to remember his manners. In two languages.

The dozens of people around us are all smiling and laughing but I know I need to get the cone away from Josh so Daniel, who has been very patient and accomodating through this whole ordeal, can have his turn. I reach for the cone and with goalie reflexes, Josh bats my hand away. I try again and he grabs my wrist and gives me this "Don't you even think about it" look. I burst out laughing again.

We eventually finish the cone but each time I had to take it away was like a whole new betrayal for Josh.

From now on we'll each get our own.