Zoe's choice

This morning Zoë and I were discussing the plans for the day. We were supposed to be going to my brother's for a visit. Zoë loves playing with her cousins so she was quite excited to do that. Unfortunately, my brother had to have hernia repair surgery on Friday so when we called their house this morning my sister-in-law said she wasn't sure my he would be up for visitors. When I told Zoë that we may not be able to go see her cousins, I said we could do something else fun instead. She said, "If I'm good, can we go to Claire's?"

I agreed to that. She's been asking to go for weeks and another $10 spent at Claire's would buy me a cooperative child for the day. That seemed like a bargain, in fact. The errands were run, lunch was had, we were out with my Mom for a few more stops and then we were just about to head to Claire's when my sister-in-law called to say we were welcome to come over. By that time it was 2pm and it being a school night we didn't really have time for both, but it could have been done with a bit of rushing in both places. So, I said to Zoë, "What would you rather do -- go to Claire's or go see your cousins?" I would have been fine with either decision, but I fully expected her to choose Claire's especially because she had been wanting to go for awhile and she missed an opportunity yesterday.

"Go see my cousins!" she answered immediately and enthusiastically. "We can go to Claire's another time. Maybe tomorrow."

"Are you sure?" I was quite surprised.

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Because I don't think we'll get another chance to go to Claire's until next weekend," I warned.

"That's OK."

I would have truly understood if she had chosen Claire's and I probably would have done both if she had pushed. If the situations had been reversed, I'm not even sure what my choice would have been, but I strongly suspect it would have been Claire's. (I would have loved Claire's had such a thing existed when I was Zoë's age.)

Off we went to see her cousins -- as well as my brother (who appears to be recovering nicely from surgery) and sister-in-law. There was never a moment of regret on her part and we had a nice evening.

She can really be a great kid.