One of those moments...

There are some posts where I extol the virtures of my beautiful children. Like most families, we have many wonderful, exciting, happy times where I think "This is why we're doing this". You know those moments.
And then there are the moments where I want to crawl under the nearest table, or perhaps rush back out the door of the restaurant....

Yes indeed, I had one of those mortifying moments....much worse than Verity continually announcing that her bum hurts at the family dinner table (that would be my parents' dinner table, you know, with all the siblings and spouses and boyfriends sitting around...).

Yesterday was grocery day. When James got home, we needed to go out and get groceries, an adventure that the kids love and look forward to; a harrowing torturous experience that James and I are growing to dread every two weeks.
The biggest problem yesterday is that the larder was empty. I'm not sure what happened our last grocery trip because we horrifyingly went over our budget by fully a 1/3, but by yesterday there was absolutely NO food to prepare for supper. We couldn't even do pancakes because we had no eggs. I do plan a menu, but I never actually plan out 14 meals, usually about 10 and then leftovers and a few dinners at my mom and dad's takes care of the rest.
So when James got home, we sat and talked for a bit (mostly about how tired we had been all day from staying up until 1am watching Lord of the Rings the night before--go ahead, give my hand a slap) and then decided we would hit Pizza Hut for a quick dinner before we went to the grocery store. Truthfully, we didn't really have the money to do that, but we didn't have the time to make two trips to the grocery store for something to make up for supper and then head back out for the big haul.

Alas, the Pizza Hut was closed for renovations. So down the road we went and spotted the East Side Marios. I LOVE East Side Marios, but I always feel a little guilty going there because it's a little expensive. But we decided we'd order a pizza there and nothing extra (sigh, no salad or garlic bread) and then it would probably be no more than Pizza Hut would have been.

The kids were all very excited, especially Verity. In fact, she was a little off the wall. As we all walked in and the Hostess appeared, she immediately went running up to her and started screeching away about something in one of those so-excited tones of voice that you could hardly understand what she said.

But I understood what she said.

Our server was a beautiful, very dark skinned young woman with many braids. She was one of those black people who you can truly call black. To my horror, Verity looked at her and said something along the lines of "You're brown!! I don't like brown!".

At first I wasn't sure she actually said such a horrible thing. She came spinning around to me and I caught her by the chin. "Verity", I said, "WHAT did you just say?". But she was too excited to comprehend and I was trying to speak on the quiet side. I waited until we got to our table and then a got my face into hers.

I determined that yes, my ears had heard correctly. I was so stunned. Why in the WORLD would she come out with such a thing? How could MY child have said something like that?

When I sat back down, James and I looked at each other with concerned looks. We discussed whether I should take Verity over to apologize to the hostess. James thought yes, but I was unsure because frankly, I didn't think the woman had heard or comprehended what Verity had said. But after a minute, I decided that she needed too: even if the woman hadn't heard it, Verity had said it and she knew she had. This apology would be more for Verity's benefit than the hostess.

So I put Verity on my hip and explained what we were going to do. She seemed agreeable. I went over to where the hostess was setting a table and told her that my daughter needed to say something to her. She was gracious and smiling, clearly touched at the cutesy apology of a three year old. I don't think she had quite heard what Verity said originally, but that was ok.

It's still a mystery why she said that. I think it was a combination of typical not-thinking-before-she-put-her-mouth-in-gear, intense excitement and perhaps a little awe over being so close to someone with such dark colouring.

But jeepers I hope that doesn't happen again!