Slim pickings

This morning Mabel was fishing around inside the hardly-ever-used diaper bag - having been denied access to my handbag; yesterday she waltzed through the kitchen saying "I'm just going to Target." "Was that my wallet she had?" I asked. "Well, how else do you expect her to buy anything in Target?" B responded reasonably.  Mabel likes to sit at the dining table emptying the coins out of my purse to buy things with at Imaginary Target - which in itself is amusing since I never use cash at Real Target...

Anyway. This morning she rooted several panty liners out of the recesses of the diaper bag and produced them joyously. "These things!" Yes, yes, I agreed. Those things. You can bring them with you in the car if you really want to.

For some reason, "those things" are a constant source of intrigue to my children. Nattily packaged, begging to be pulled open with an easy tug on the little white tab, and look - inside, it's a giant sticker! What's not to love? And an aura of mystery and vague forbidden-ness to boot. I usually try to keep them out of reach, but if the kids get their mitts on them, I suppose one or two can be sacrificed for the cause of keeping them amused.

So we got into the car and headed off for the supermarket, a trip I could finally put off no longer, as pickings for dinner have been slim since last Friday or so. The pair of them were squabbling over things in the back seat, and giggling happily. At the lights, I glanced around. Mabel had a panty liner neatly wrapped around each shin, and Monkey was wearing one over his mouth. No, his eyes. No, his neck...

I just hope the people in the car beside us weren't looking too closely.