Terrible Twos

Hope was a sweet, loving granddaughter, and then she turned two...

My once sweet little monkey, Hope, is into her “Terrible Twos” now.

Hope loves balloons. Her birthday balloon lasted for a month, but finally would float no more. So, being the good grandma that I am, I told her we would go to the store and buy a new one.

My mistake was buying the balloon first, and then thinking we could do a little grocery shopping, then stop for lunch.

Parking in the Kroger parking lot, I went around to the back door and proceeded to get Hope out of the car seat. She had a death grip on that balloon. I tried to pry it out of her little fingers.

“No, no, my ba-youn," she screamed.

“Balloon will be right here, waiting for you when you come back,” I assured her.

I had a heck of a time getting the seat belt unbuckled with Hope thrashing and the balloon's ribbon intertwined through everything, but somehow I managed.

Hope still screamed, “No, no, my ba-youn,” at the top of her lungs.

“We can't take balloon in the store, Hope, they sell balloons and they will make us pay for it again,” I tried to reason with her.

Dragging her from the car, I ran for the nearest shopping cart. She was wiggling and screaming so much I thought I would drop her. I couldn't believe her super-toddler strength. It took me several minutes before I was able to wrestle her into the cart. All the while she was screaming, “No, no, no!”

I looked around, wondering if anyone thought I was trying to kidnap her. One little old lady was sitting in her car, with her window rolled down.

“That's a feisty one,” she said.

“She didn't want to leave her balloon in the car,” I said, hoping the police weren't already on their way.

As we entered the lobby, I spied a lone balloon up in the corner of the ceiling.

“Look, Hope, a balloon,” I said.

Hope immediately stopped crying. Almost as if I had turned a switch off, Hope was her normal sweet self again! I was able to shop to my heart's content, no mention of her “ba-youn”.

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