If she's not asking for a Babycino, she's asking to go to a cafe for lunch. Or saying things like "I can have wine when I get bigger".
And when I say "we" ... I mean it. I'm not taking all the blame for this! I'm looking at you Mr Frog.
Tadpoles first Babycino was free. The waitress taking our coffee order apologised as she brought our order to the table. "I'm sorry, she's so beautiful I made her a Babycino." Free drinks at about 18 months. I was so proud.
I used to think Babycinos were the dumbest thing ever and only for the ridiculous Brighton mums who enjoyed pandering to their children and treating them like tiny adults. Hmm... Perhaps I'm still holding some sort of prejudice. Anyway, once you have kids of your own, or even borrow one for a day, you realise that Babycinos are actually The. Best. Thing. Ever.
First of all, you can bribe kids with them. Don't judge.
Second, they're really cute, and sometimes even come with SPRINKLES!
And third... Well they just make her so happy. Just watching her enjoy something so simple, a cup of frothy milk for goodness sake, is one of life's even simpler pleasures.
It does however become a bit of a habit. A nice, albeit, slightly snooty sounding one.
A few weeks ago I dragged poor Tadpole with me to do the groceries. I usually do them on a day she's at Kinder but I was kinda hoping to save myself a little me time, so a team job it was.
We head to Aldi first where I do the majority of our shop. She's getting extra attention today because she's wearing a sparkly dress, sparkly shoes, numerous necklaces, bracelets and a ring, plus some beads on her head like a little boho crown. She looks fabulous and hilarious. And she's well behaved. All good. Next we head to Coles to get the bits and pieces they don't have at Aldi. Once we're done she wants to know where we're going next. "Home for lunch" I say in my best mum voice. ( You know, wildly optimistic and excited about a ham sandwich).
"No, I want to go to a café".
Yeah. I don't blame you kid.
We love to eat out, although it's not a regular occurrence. When we do, we get really into it. We're all about tasting everything in our house so Tadpole is quite happy to eat stuffed zucchini flowers and the like. And while she'll try most things, most of the time, getting her to sit still at restaurants was once one of my biggest fears. She's really very good ( humble brag) but there's only so much sitting still a three year old can do.
And that's how the Art Pocket came about. ( See what I did there? ) As a solution to a fidgety Tadpole. We had gotten into the habit of taking a little pack of Textas and colouring pages in the nappy bag, but the Textas kept falling out of the cardboard packet and there was nowhere to keep any finished masterpieces. I designed the Art Pocket to have a slightly smaller zip than the length of the pencil case, so the pencils are less likely to fall out, and there's a pocket to slip in a Visual Diary, plus keep the other random colouring pages she gets given when we're out. Sometimes, when I'm feeling like a super fabulous mum, I slip some stickers into the pencil case as a surprise. Yeah, I know. I'm awesome. *insert eye roll*
We take it everywhere. And I'm pretty bloody proud of my little invention.
Now you. How do you keep children entertained and relatively quiet in "grown up" spaces?
What have you introduced your kid to that you kinda wish you hadn't?
To see how groovy the Art Pocket is (yes, I said GROOVY), check out this little video I made. Or just watch it and laugh at my annoying voice.
To buy one, or many, or to have me create one just for you, go to Madame Clochette.
A bientôt
Sam, Madame Clochette
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