We Are Both Learning About Patience

To wit:

1. The Bean: an exchange with an imaginary friend (who takes the form of Mimi, a 9 or 10 year old girl we know from Jersey City, on whom Ella had a toddler crush when she was two and three):

-"Do you know what being Patient is?"
-"No! What is it?"
-"Patient is when your mom and dad says Wait a Minute! Be Patient! That is being Patient!"
-"Oh! I love being patient!"

2. Me:

-Might need to take the time to teach the Bean that standing on the stroller's boogie board when I am not behind it is not a good idea, as illustrated by the shocked faces of the ladies waiting behind us in the line at the craft store. (We are working out the details of the weight balance.)

-Might need to consider alternatives (see: Dr. Sears) to screaming, "No! You cannot have that!" to the Bean's assertions that she needs a watch, jewelry, perfume and candy at K-Mart during the same pre-Valentine's Day shopping trip. Oh, and to ride the escalator.

Suggestions on how to teach children the economics of the middle class? Or is it simply akin to placing a woman in the H&M and demanding that no, she may not leave before spending the obligatory $20 H&M tax?

(Snow angel without waving arms=collapse.)