Today the three of us (Tanner, Kate and I) went to Harvest Health Foods for lunch. I love Harvest Health Foods. They have amazing, yummy, super-healthy sandwiches, salads, smoothies, treats, wraps, etc. Quinoa is in practically every salad (right up my alley), combined with fresh vegetables, herbs, toasted nuts, good cheese and homemade vinaigrettes. They have chocolate chip cookies that are so full of nutrition, that most people would puke, but Kate and Tanner think they're such a treat and will eat their whole lunch so they can get a cookie at the end. Again, I love this place.
So, back to our lunch today. I start ordering our usual while Tanner gets seat for us and the girl behind the counter tells me that they only have raisin cookies today...no chocolate chip ones. Of course Kate is fine with that, but not Tanner. I call out to him, "Hey bud, they're out of chocolate chip cookies, would you like a raisin cookie instead?" He responded loudly, shouting across the store, "NO WAY. YUCK! I want a brownie" They also make delicious brownies, that contain not a trace of nutrition. Sometimes I give in, but after a weekend full of Easter treats for my four-year old, I said no. He yells, "YES. I WANT A BROWNIE." I ignore him while I finished paying for our food. I think he confused my ignoring him with me giving in helplessly.
We sit down with our food and Kate immediately starts eating her food. Tanner looks around and demands to know where his brownie is. I tell him that we are not getting brownies today, but I would happily let him pick out a different treat when he's done eating, or he could have a brownie (leftover from last night) when we get home. Well, then all hell broke loose.
He starts crying, demanding a brownie. Now, I gotta explain, this health food store is tiny. You could talk in a normal voice on one side of the store and be heard loud and clear on the other side of the store. It is a local family owned business where every time you go in, you see the same workers. Most of the customers are the type that maybe have one kid, but probably none at all. The workers... have never cared for us much. As hard as we try, we always leave a mess on the floor when we leave. I clean up the best I can, but as I'm cleaning Kate is still dropping crumbs. I can always sense their agony when we walk in the door, but I love it so much there, that I pretend they like us.
Back to Tanner. He still is yelling and I whisper in his ear that if he is happy and eats his smoothie, we'll get a treat, otherwise we'll go home. Well he continues, but louder, "I'LL STOP CRYING, I WANT TO EAT HERE AND I WANT A BROWNIE." So I swooped up Kate and our food and left the store. Tanner grabbed his smoothie (that I paid over 5 bucks for ) and threw it out the front door of the store as hard as he could. It splattered all over the ground in a gigantic mess with all the workers and customers staring at us. I'm not exaggerating. At this point Tanner is yelling at me that it's all my fault, I hurt his feelings and that he'll stop crying but he wants to go back inside. He refuses to get in the van and he is really strong. I finally strapped him in and we went home with him yelling at me, and leaving a gigantic mess behind us.
As horrible as it was, I'm kind of glad it happened. Maybe this is the beginning of him taking me a bit more seriously. When we got home he gave me a huge hug and kiss and told me how much he loved me. What??
I'm not sure that we'll ever be going back to Harvest Health Foods....