Please Seat Yourself

Christmas week is going to be a busy week so yesterday I took Caleb to get his Christmas present... a new cell phone... The girls went with us and I knew we would be in the cell phone store for quite a while. I told the girls if they behaved we would stop and get lunch before we went home.

As I expected with the Christmas season, the store was packed. The girls did fairly good, considering we were in the store for over an hour and a half. Suzie, in typical fashion, chatted with everyone that came in the store. I've given up on trying to teach her not to talk to strangers. To her, there are no strangers, only friends she hasn't yet introduced herself to.

Finally.. finally... Our contracts were signed and our phones were activated... I say "our phones" because I got a free cell phone out of the deal. Chuck's comment to me, "Merry Christmas!"... lol.... It was good timing on leaving the store, too, because Suzie was starting to melt down. Caleb and I gathered up the girls and their coats and quickly headed for the van. I'm sure the store employees were looking forward to the silence provided by the lack of my children's presence

It was lunch time; the girls behaved; ... mostly... so we stopped at Taco Bell for lunch. The Christmas air was bone-chilling cold. The kids and I darted across the parking lot and ran into the restaurant. Caleb, Gracie and I got in line while Suzie looked around the restaurant trying to pick out a table for us to sit.

Whenever we go to Taco Bell the kids like to sit at the tall tables. Suzie spied a large table in the corner, "Lets sit here, Mommy!"

I turned around to see Suzie walking up to a tall table; the table top was just at her eye level. My gaze lifted to see a woman and two children sitting on the other side of the table. I was puzzled. Suzie was standing at the edge of the table; considering the height of the table, I wondered if Suzie saw the family sitting there?

I stepped back to where Suzie was standing, gave the woman an apologetic smile and whispered in Suzie's ear, "Suzie, there is someone already sitting at the table."

Suzie turned to look me in the eye and replied with a not-so-quiet voice, "So!?"

I was speechless for a second, not believing Suzie's brash behavior... Was she wanting this family to get up? Or was she wanting to sit at the table with them?...

My gaze met the gaze of the mother sitting there, she was smiling, somewhat amused at my little girl's behavior. "Suzie," I said a little more sternly, "we can't sit here. There is someone else already sitting here."

Suzie looked back at the table with absolute confidence. She held her arms out like a model displaying a prize on a game show and motioned to the four empty seats at the table, "But we can sit right Here. Here. Here. and Here!"

Again, I looked at the mother sitting there; I shrugged my shoulders and smiled. She smiled back. I gently nudged Suzie back to front counter so we could order our food, "I know there are empty seats, but lets find another table to sit at."

As we stood in line, waiting our turn to order, I had a little talk with Suzie; trying to explain the difference between being friendly and being rude.

Suzie protested my comments, "I wasn't being rude!"

After discussing it a little more, Suzie still didn't see anything wrong with her actions. She was just being friendly and wanting to share the table.

Its great that she is so outgoing and friendly, but a little scary too. It will take some creativity on my part to guide her character without destroying her personality.