If you have read here over the years you might remember that HubbyMoose and I take one (of the 7) grands on a weekly lunch/dinner date followed by shopping. We do our weekly grocery shopping and get to enjoy one of the (not so) “littles” alone for a few hours. We’ve done this for several years – and the kids all pretty much know when it is their turn. We go by age – youngest to oldest (although HE has been much too busy working and playing these last months and so has missed out).

It starts just as soon as we can take the little ones away from mama for a few hours – long enough so they don’t want to nurse – and when they can eat solid foods. ‘course . . . that is sort of a moot point now that the youngest is almost five years old! (ack! where DOES the time go?)

This week we got to take 12 year old D for his trip – it has had to be put off for a few weeks because either we were gone or he was gone/busy, etc. But THIS week it was his turn.

D had his birthday in November, so we were also going to let him pick out a book he wanted – then we found out he had all of his birthday money, too . . . so it was off to the independent book store we went.

The owner loves it that we would rather shop for books with these kiddos than for toys – she loves it when we BUY books for Christmas instead of toys, too. 😉

After many books were chosen and paid for . . . it was time for dinner. We decided on a Chinese restaurant nearby for something different – it is not something we can do every week – the tab was WAY more than we are used to spending for lunch/dinner with the grands . . . but this was a special treat for D.

Thus the challenge . . .

KunPao Chicken . . . complete with peppers. Paw-Paw said “be careful, the peppers are REALLY hot, so don’t bite into one.”

CHALLENGE!

You could just see the wheels turning in D’s head . . . (internal conversation) “Paw-Paw’s a wimp. I can eat ’em. I’ll show him!”

He reached out, took a pepper and put the whole thing into his mouth and began to chew. “It’s not so hot!” he declared.

And, then we watched as he visibly grew taller in his seat . . . his face turned red the more he chewed . . . he began to rock in his seat . . . he took a drink of his root beer (he had told us before dinner that root beer cut the HOT of any pepper – heh) – rocked some more and then sat taller and taller and taller still. I watched as tears began to roll down his face – then he held his ears (later telling us that they hurt from the inside – until he put one of the peppered fingers into an ear to stop it hurting – and then it hurt from the outside, too!)

The waitress heard us chuckling, came over, took one look and left saying over her shoulder “I’ll get something to help.” She came back with orange slices telling D that chewing them would help cut the hot.

“I told you not to take one,” Paw-Paw said. “Did you think that I was just a wuss?”

D nodded his head and then asked to be excused to get tissues from the bathroom to blow his now running nose.

Poor kid!

He was warned.

He thought he could outsmart/out pepper his grandpa. LOL

Everytime we tell the story (to others and each other) we just start chuckling and then LAUGHING and soon the tears are rolling down OUR cheeks, too.

Grandkids . . . you gotta love ’em. They are what makes having kids worth it all!