In chess one cannot control everything. Sometimes a game takes an unexpected turn, in which beauty begins to emerge. Both players are always instrumental in this.  ~Vladimir Kramnik

Kyle was suppose to be putting away groceries... instead he chose to stack them like a poltergeist. 2012

It’s pretty evident that Kyle brightens my day, as he does with my family.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Kyle is so much fun to be around!  I mean that sincerely.  Now I’m not saying it’s always peaches and roses, but when we are out and about, there’s usually a story that erupts of our excursions.

A couple of weeks ago was Ash Wednesday, and I picked Kyle up early in the morning for church before school started.  That way he didn’t miss swimming in the evening and he didn’t miss a bit of school.  First I’d like to say that starting your morning off in church, really starts the day off right, especially when Kyle is by my side.  Hitting the local Panera afterwards, Kyle got a breakfast sandwich to fuel him up for the day.  We won’t even discuss the ham that was on the sandwich, which I forgot no meat on Ash Wednesday, but that’s another subject all together. Then we proceeded to straight to school.  I must say I really enjoyed spending the morning with Kyle and seeing him off.  He seemed fine hanging out with me and the whole arrangement, well, that is until I decided to unfasten my seat belt to get out of the car.  In a devastated tone, Kyle said, “What are you doing?”  I said, “You’re not getting away without at least giving me a hug.  No one is around so I’d make it a quick one before the buses arrive.”  Kyle grunted and barely got near me.  Then just to torture him some more, as he walked away, I yelled, “Hey you didn’t give me a kiss!”  Kyle turned around with this shocked look, put his head down and kind of gritted between his teeth saying, “Aunt Heather do I have to?”  On my defense I looked around to see that no one was looking and then I said, “YES!” I don’t think his lips hit my cheek, but I was still happy with the half gesture.

For no reason, Kyle painted his face like a cat with maker... he had to serve mass that night 2/2012

Now fast forward about eight hours while I was at work.  Kyle and I decided to stop at the grocery store to pick up eggs to make egg wraps (multi-grain) for dinner.  Basically its a fried egg or two on a wrap with cheese, sometimes ketchup, sometimes fried potatoes, and sometimes veggies.  As we entered the store, the first thing you pass is the bread and pastry section.   Kyle all of a sudden groans, “O no why do I have to walk through this torture.  Smell Aunt Heather!”  You know he was right, it did smell heavenly.  Once we managed to get into the produce section I decided I wanted lettuce to make a salad.  I love salads!! I actually crave them.  Just then Kyle spotted the pepperoni sticks.  He grabs this long stick of pepperoni and said, “Aunt Heather I think I’m going to snack on pepperoni before we get to swimming.”  I said, “Why do you need so much?” Without missing a beat Kyle remarked, “It’s cheaper to get the big one.”  Of course! What was I thinking. It’s cheaper to get this huge stick of pepperoni that will literally last me for three years.  While we were discussing the pepperoni stick, I completely forgot to pick up potatoes.  By that time we had already maneuvered to the eggs, on the other side of the store.  We trekked back to produce section, but I didn’t realize we were headed straight for the bread and pastry area again.  We should have taken the back way, I knew I got off lucky with no arguments from Kyle the first time through.  Now, I wasn’t so sure second time around.  Not to mention I was really hungry too and I didn’t want to fall prey to the sweet temptations.  As we approached the naughty delights, Kyle took in this huge whiff and exhaled saying, “O no not again!” as he held onto the giant stick of pepperoni.  At this point I felt his pain, but he was seriously cracking me up.

On our second trip through the grocery store, we managed to get what we needed and avoid the high sugar, high carb, and no nutritional value section.  Then, Kyle realized something very important in his plan.  He said, “Hey wait, how am I going to open this to eat it?” referring to the pepperoni stick.  I busted out laughing saying, “What are you going to do, gnaw on the stick while I drive?”  He started to laugh so hard.  I mean we both pictured how utterly ridiculous he would look.  Just then, I realized they had a smaller amount of pepperoni already cut up in containers.  I instructed him to get that as opposed to the weapon we were walking around with. He argued, I could tell he really thought it was hilarious to chew on the stick, but in the end I prevailed.

As we made our way to the check out, I started scanning in the items through the self-check out. Kyle graciously said he was going to bag the items. Then he started going on in his instructional, planning dissertation about how he was going to bag the groceries, which items were going to go into which bag etc.  He was going on about what he WAS going to do. He didn’t even get started as I was too focused on looking up the lettuce code.  He kept asking me questions but I just said, “Ya ok buddy, whatever.”  because I needed to focus on paying etc. Just then I looked up at him, started to laugh and I admittedly said, “I didn’t hear a word you were saying.”  We both busted out laughing, and just at that moment I saw a clerk standing there trying to hide her giggles, no doubt directed towards us.  We must look like Laurel and Hardy.  But you what, even a simple trip to the grocery is an adventure for us.  We really do enjoy each others company!  He’s my sidekick and my little man!