She gets it from her Aunt Jenny...

When I was about 10 years old my mom, sisters and I discovered a soft serve ice cream that we loved. Some evenings after dinner we would make a special trip to the mall where it was located just to have a cone. And if we happened to be at the mall for any special reason we usually stopped to get some then as well. One day in particular my mom, sisters, and I were at the mall and we wanted to get some ice cream but my mom only had enough cash to buy one cone. (this was obviously in the days before check cards) We all decided that we would share the cone, each person would take a little and pass it on to the next. Jenny was maybe about 2 years old and while she said she was on board with this plan, I now believe that the only part of the plan she actually understood and agreed to was the buying of the ice cream cone. The sharing part went way over her 2 year old head.


So, we made our purchase and started the sharing rotation. First mom took her turn, then me, next Adrienne and last was Jenny. The whole time the cone was being passed around she waited anxiously for her turn. Once she had it, I think, she thought it was hers for good. She took her turn and when mom reached to take it from her for the next person Jenny let out a scream that would wake the dead...and she didn't stop until it was her turn again. She did this every time we took it from her. We would try to calm her down in between turns but she still screeched at the top of her lungs. People were gawking at us wondering what awful things were being done to this poor child who would not stop yelling. We also tried to explain to her before giving her another turn that she would have to give up the cone once she took her turn but she would get it again. It didn't matter, all she knew was that she wanted HER ice cream and WE were taking it from her. I think we eventually gave her the rest of it once we got to the end of it. To this day we still give Jenny a hard time about that incident.

Now, almost 19 years later there is another little girl who has a similar love for ice cream and detestation for sharing it...

A few weeks ago Maggie and I went to visit Will while he was working at the valet. While we were there I ran over to Kilwin's, the new favorite ice cream joint, and got a small chocolate cup for us to share. I thought we would also give Maggie a couple of bites to see how she liked it. It might as well have been Jenny eating that ice cream when she was 2 because every time we filled the spoon to serve ourselves Maggie hollered until we gave her some. Only this time there was no explaining and no reasoning, not that it made much difference when we tried with Jenny.

We haven't given her any more ice cream since that time. First of all, she's still a little young, second of all, I personally like the mall from time to time. I'd like to be able to return there. I fear that if my child keeps up that screaming they might ask us to leave and not come back. That has happened in my family as well. That is a comparison I do not wish to make...