Lollipop! Yes!

Okay! Raise your hand if you've ever taken your small child into a liquor store! C'mon, don't be shy! Speak out!

(sound of crickets chirping...tumbleweeds blowing by...)

Okay, I guess it's just me, eh? Well. As it turns out, the cadre of older gentlemen who stock the nearest wine and liquor store are not only super nice and like to coo over little boy toddlers, BUT THEY ALSO HAND OUT LOLLIPOPS.

That's right. Lollipops. Man. And William thought that the free stickers at Kroger and the free balloons at Harris Teeter were a good deal!

One of the men whispered to me, "Oh, please, please, can we give him a lollipop? We give them to all the kids who come in here with their parents." And he showed me a half-full bag of the classic Dum-Dums, the kind my mom's bank used to hand out to eager children (read: me) who were squirming in the front seat of the car in the drive-up teller line. I picked out a banana-flavored sucker and said, "Sure, let him have this. It's a special treat."

I mean, William's been sick. Why not let him have a little treat? So while I paid for my bottle of Smoking Loon Chardonnay (the house wine of Chez Larson-Wyckoff), my son's eyes were lighting up like lanterns at the first taste of the sugary lollipop.

I don't know if West Meade Wine and Liquor is trying to cement new customers very early (very very early), but whatever their motives, they have a new fan in my son. Advertising may work on some kids, but CANDY works on ALL kids. As we left, the men told William, "You can come back in about 35 years and have some of what your mom's buying."

I could almost hear William thinking, "Who cares what Mommy's drinking! I've got a lollipop!" He delightedly licked away at the little yellow candy, forgetting that he had been objecting to riding in the stroller mere minutes before.

And so for the next ten minutes or so, as we got settled into the car and drove on down the road, I heard a steady joyous rhapsody of "Lollipop! Yes! Lollipop! Mmmmm! Lollipop! Yes! Mmmm!" from the backseat.

I wonder if he'll talk about the lollipop for as long as he talked about the fireworks that he saw on Christmas...