Monday, November 26, 2007

The Coconut

Today, after school, Pippi, Bardo, and I headed to the grocery store. We're already out of Thanksgiving leftovers, but more importantly, we were out of bananas, Bardo's staple food of choice. While wandering the produce section, Pippi saw a coconut. Whenever we go to the stored her eyes rest on the coconut. Today, in a moment of weakness, I gave in to her heart's desire. Sh held it for awhile through the store, and then, it rolled out of her hands. Fortunately, it only made a knocking sound, rather then the cracking sound. The coconut had survived, and was unbroken. I instructed Pippi to put that baby into the cart. She did so after a couple of minute of arguing and tender coconut holding.

Pippi held the coconut carefully in her hands all the way home. She removed the confining orange net. She thought opening the coconut would be the first order of business upon arrival. Bardo's hungry cries crushed her plans, and we all sat down to dinner. The clock ticked on, way too fast, as we finished up dinner, dog barking, Bardo screeching, and I saw that Pippi was going to have to HURRY if she was going to do her before bed routine AND break open the coconut. So, like any time conscious mother I told her she must take a bath, brush her teeth, and get in her pajamas, and do her 2 minor before-bed chores before we could take a hammer to the coconut. She argued for awhile, and then when I told he she was wasting her time, she hopped to her chores.

Finally, it was time to open the coconut; we headed out to the garage for its concrete floor, and the Warlock's tools. As we were rummaging around trying to find the necessary supplies, I notice that Hunter is freaking out running around in circles. He had stepped on the sticky traps our friendly pest control specialist had left. He managed to get it off, and then as we were getting ready to hammer the nail into the coconut Bardo starts crying because he's stuck in the sticky trap, too. As soon as I removed him from the trap, he starts crying again because the foot of his pajama was stuck to the floor.

Our nail turned out to be so small that it was going to take forever to drain the water from the coconut, so I told Pippi she would have to drink the Coconut Water (YUCK!) tomorrow morning. This was not according to her plans, and she told me as much.

So the kids went to bed 45 minutes late because of a coconut. And we haven't even opened it yet...

7 comments:

Erin said...

I bought a coconut once for the offspring because she was going through a "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" phase. Our experience was similar to yours in that it was maximum effort for minimum results. Next time I'm buying her an almond joy.

That's hilarious you "caught" your dog and Bardo. Once, in New York, I "caught" our friends child who was over for a visit. Whoops. :)

Unknown said...

Who would've guessed a coconut could be so troublesome!? Adam and I bought one about a month ago and he had grand time breaking it open with one of his big knives!

eryka said...

It's good to stay up past your bed time once in a while. Has she ever had coconut?

Rachael said...

I had a very similar experience when I bought one for my boy. I ended up just taking a hammer to the coconut and skipped the draining process. I love reading your stories and looking at your kids grow. :)

Amberly said...

you're a fantastically patient mother. I bet she dreams of coconut milk all night long!

Unknown said...

I learned at the Polynesian Cultural Center that coconuts are the reason men do the cooking in Samoa. It takes the women about a year to open a coconut. Maybe we should all move to Samoa and live on coconuts. Just think of how much extra time we would have if we didn't have to cook!

Prudence said...

So did you ever open the coconut all the way?