MONDAY MUSINGS...

...primarily about mcdonalds.

for someone who only consumes the occasional fries, doesn't eat hamburgers or drink cokes, i've placed a lot of orders at mcdonalds this month. all for the sake of these:

(source)

eating extra fries this month is not the confession though. this is: i've turned into that mom. you know the one. the one that slows down the drive-thru line by asking if a particular toy can be placed in the happy meal box. she is also that wife who asks her husband to pretty please let her run into various mcdonalds around town in attempt to trade out dolls of which they have duplicates. it isn't pretty, but it's true.

that mom might justify this ridiculous behavior by:
a) thinking ridiculous thoughts about how madame alexander dolls in happy meals may only happen once a childhood.
b) thinking what great props these will be while she tells classic stories to her kids again and again.
(but then she starts the storytelling to her toddler only to remember mid-stories that some classics are actually rather creepy. children who excitedly encounter a house made of candy, only to have their sugar high interrupted by a cannibal? a grandma stuck in the belly of a wolf? need i go on?)

c) and what about the fact that adelaide formed a bond with madame alexander dolls from an early age? her "baby julie" was one of her first friends. when you consider the full-sized dolls cost much more than the price of a meal, these little versions seem like too good of a deal to pass up.  congratulations mcdonalds, your marketing worked on me.

so we have a few new pint-sized friends at our house. whenever we see the doll below evan says, "hansel, he's so hot right now!" ( in a perfect derek zoolander voice.) this drives adelaide crazy as she cannot figure out why we think hansel is hot in our air conditioned house.  she responds every time by saying, "daddy, you MUST be teasing because HANSEL IS NOT HOT right now!"

yes, it's true that adelaide loves playing with these toys, but let me tell you who has really benefited from the frequent trips to mcdonalds- graham. baby g had fallen off the charts for his weight.  our pediatrician is not that worried, but she did suggest giving him a little more substantial foods with every meal. i'm sure chicken nuggets are exactly what she had in mind.

one afternoon as i was getting our drinks ready for a mickey d's picnic lunch, graham did an amazing bumbo lunge maneuver and successfully plucked the chicken strip right out of my snack wrap. he wasted no time at all, and began to gnaw on it. i think it's safe to say somebody else likes mcdonalds.

some times these toys are used as teethers,

other times we just sit and stare at them,

every day my own pint-sized characters entertain me as they play.