The day the carrot came to town…..

The carrot came to town? Yes, I do mean literally….

Here’s a little story about my day and my son’s new best friend. This morning while I was prepping dinner and getting everything in the slow cooker, little man decided to steal a carrot from the cupboard and took it off to the lounge with him. My desperate attempts to retrieve the carrot were met by the typical toddler response of “NO! Mine!” while hugging it. I tried to tempt him with a smaller one but to no avail. He was happy with his carrot, one of the biggest from the bag. He’s not feeling too well as he’s full of cold so I didn’t want to argue with him over a carrot. Sometimes you pick your battles and this just wasn’t worth the tantrum.

He briefly put said carrot down, leaving it on the kitchen counter while he went to lay down for half an hour. As soon as he was up again, he was looking for “Carrot”. He eventually remembered where he’d left it and he was back to hugging his new vegetable friend.

I thought leaving the house would solve the new obsession…. Shoes on, jacket on, off he sets towards the door, carrot in hand. Dammit. “Mini man, are you going to leave the carrot here?” I stupidly ask. “NO!” he shrieks and starts stamping his feet. “Ok, ok, I’m not going to fight you for it” so off he walks towards the car with a massive grin on his little face, waving his carrot in the air.

So, my next plan is to leave it in the car while we go pick some bits up in town and go to Song Time at the Library…. Nope!

I find a parking spot and get the buggy from the boot, open his door. “Are you going to leave Carrot here?” “NO!” and he holds the carrot close to his chest as I lift him out of his seat. Well, I’ve never been stared at so much in my life! He’s sat in his buggy waving the damn carrot around, using it to point at busses and lorries as he shouts what they are as loud as he can. It’s lucky he’s cute so people find it adorable rather than a little strange! He was so proud of his carrot though and took every opportunity to show and tell people what he had.

Off to the library. A short walk from town and again the waving of the massive carrot continued with people commenting as I sped past them. There was already a few parents and child minders sat in the children’s section when we arrived and of course, they all got shown the carrot.

I received a few sympathetic looks but mostly “WTF”, laughing faces as my son proudly ran around with giant carrot in his hand. I thought he might leave it when the instruments appeared and briefly it did go on the floor. Unfortunately a smaller child set eyes on it and he had to swipe it away from her before she could get her sticky fingers on it.

By the time we left the library, it wasn’t really very orange any more. But he still continued to keep hold of it. We got back in the car to go meet my friend for lunch. He did put it down when we got to our destination as he was given a bag of crisps. It was still right next to him and when we met my friend he of course he picked it back up to show her. While we were eating he left Carrot in his buggy and quite happily munched his way through a bowl of prawn crackers but he demanded to have it back when we got to the car. Here, he proceeded to fall asleep cuddling Carrot and a teddy dog my friend had bought for him.

After his short nap and a snack, he played quite happily with his Duplo, his vegetable friend by his side. Dinner time and the bloody thing is up the table with him!

He actually refused to eat the carrot in his dinner! The thing is black now but he has finally left it alone, I’m going to throw it out when he goes to bed and try to hide the rest of the bag in a place he wouldn’t look. I really don’t think I can deal with another day of vegetable friends.