Image: Rain, Rain Go Away

Mother's Little Helper*

Harrison loves helping out lately. Fajitas were on the dinner menu yesterday, and he was a great assistant: washing and seeding the sweet peppers, scooping out and smashing the avocado, stirring the guacamole, and putting the vegetable scraps in the compost pail. He even took the initiative to get a new sponge out from under the sink and started wiping off the table when we were all done!

I love the changing way in which he's participating in our family.

More pics on flickr.

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*No, not that kind!

Image: Bathtime with Kaiva

Slurpeeeeew

Did you know that in addition to an entry on wikipedia listing every flavor of Slurpee ever created (Red Licorice! Honeycomb!) that Slurpee has it's very own website, which is currently featuring Slurpee's new & exciting taste sensation the "Purple S'creme." The slogan for the Purple S'creme is "Looks Purple. Taste Vanilla." Apparently, this is a selling point.

EW.

Anyhoo, I have a question for you.

Picture this:

• Sarah plays outside with garden hose, Harrison, and neighbor girl Alex.
• Neighbor mom joins group.
• While Sarah talks with Alex, neighbor mom proceeds to feed Harrison Pina Colada-flavored Slurpee. From own, used straw-spoon. (Straw-poon? Spoon-raw?)
• Sarah notices and flounders for a response, then is stunned into silence.

Now, I have no objections to Harrison eating Slurpees (even purple ones which "taste vanilla"). I have no objection to Harrison eating a Pina Colada Slurpee, even though, as you can see on Wikipedia, Pina Colada is the ONLY non kosher Slurpee flavor. (Who knew? And what makes it non kosher?)

What I do object to is the neighbor mom feeding Harrison from her own spoon and feeding him without asking me first.

Am I unduly annoyed? Does anyone else find this gross?

I asked Doug about this and he was even more repulsed. We discussed how kids share drinks and suckers and everything else and how that's okay, but, as Doug put it, the neighbor mom's mouth carried the stigma of "a lifetime of filth" and "possible coldsores."

Still, if it was Inga or Val sharing food, I wouldn't have batted an eye--and God knows they're both filthy freaks!

What should or could I have done? Nothing? Told her to stop because her mouth was contaminated with a "lifetime of filth"?

I'm thinking that wouldn't have been well received.

Image: Nephew and Aunt

Harrison loves his Aunt Tow-Wah (Tara).