The other day Hope and I went to an indoor play area where there were lots of 25 cent rides.
O.k. o.k, it was Chuck E. Cheese. Someone all but dared me to go back. (That someone happens to be 2.5-years old).
We used up all our tokens quickly, and then it was time to go. Hope protested, stopping at every ride on the way out.
“I wanna ride this one!”
“Hope, honey we’re all done.”
“But I wanna ride this one.”
“Babe, we’re out of tokens. It’s time to go.”
“But I want more tokens.”
I was out of cash and coins and was not about to use my credit card to get more tokens.
“I want more tokens!” she repeated.
“Hope. We have no more money. No more tokens. Let’s go.”
We walked a few steps, and Hope jumped on another ride.
“I wanna ride this one!”
“Hope. We. Have. No. More. Money. Let’s go.”
The next day we went to McDonalds while Rhema was in school. We were sitting in the booth when Hope asked for more ketchup. She had a huge dollop of ketchup already.
“Hope, no more. You have enough ketchup already.”
She began repeating to herself, “No money, no money, no money.”
I ignored her. As her voice grew louder I told myself that people would think she was saying “No Mommy.”
Then, suddenly inspired, she stood to her feet in the booth and began chanting,
“We! Have! No! Money!!!
We! Have! No! Money!!!”
“Hope!” I said under my breath. “Ssshhh. Sit down.”
Egged on by my response and the snickers of an elderly couple a few tables down, Hope continued chanting as if at a rally, her french fry waving in the air.
I looked around the restaurant. Why, oh why had I left the house with a messy ponytail and faded sweats?
On our way out I half expected someone to slip us a twenty.
Instead we met a mother and daughter entering the fast food store.
“Hi, what’s your name?” Hope asked the girl.
The girl told her her name.
“I’m Strawberry Shortcake.” Hope, ever the conversationalist, replied. “My sister, Raspberry Torte, is at school. My Daddy is Angel Cake. And this (pointing to me) is Orange Blossom. We have no money.”
rhemashope.wordpress.com 
I’m hysterical over here! She is a riot – and incredibly imaginative!
good for us all to laugh while we die those thousand deaths:)
OMG sooo cute and funny
I learned early never to leave the house with a two year old and no make-up. They have a sixth sense about when is a great time to embarrass mommy!
Hysterical! I love Hope!
Oh, how embarrassing, yet SO funny! Thank you for sharing. 🙂
I love how every member of your family is a character from Strawberry Shortcake!
Love it!! I absolutely love it!! Yesterday Ryleigh saw me getting sick and quite shortly after when I told her I was okay she started reenacting the scene. Did the same thing at the commissary…had to explain that one to the grocery lady. Oh joy.
Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!! I love it! Reminds me of so many things Katy used to say. I’d have to remind my mom not to take everything Katy told her at face value but to ask me , as Paul Harvey said, “for the rest of the story”. 😀
I suppose it could have been worse. She’s been telling people ‘my Daddy went far away.’ Thankfully she didn’t append that to ‘We have no money.’!
Oh, yes…I remember these days. I was at a restaurant with a friend, who swore she’d never get married or have children. Josh was about 18 months at the time. He was handing bread sticks over the booth to an older couple, who thought it was cute. Then out of nowhere he lets out this blood curdling scream. The entire restaurant went silent. My friend wanted to crawl under the table. She said, “Can’t you stop him?” I got the giggles, “I said, if I’d known that he was going to do that I might have been able to stop him. But I’m just as surprised as everyone else.” She never would go out with me again if I had Josh with me. BTW, 16 years later, she’s never been married and she has no children.
I love it. Hope gets the cute girl award for the day! I wish I could have been there.
I felt bad that my daughter would never have a sister (I have 4). So when her cousin (who was to be an only child) was born we told her that the new baby was her special sister. Now she tells everyone we meet “I have a sister but, she doesn’t live with us and she has different mommy than me”. I always just cringe.
This is great!! I love Hope. I can see your expression (and your messy pony tail and faded sweats!!) A good exercise in humility!!!
SOOOO funny! Girl, if it had been me, and someone had slipped me a twenty, I probably would have accepted it! 🙂 Thank heavens for your Hope and my Olivia; they manage to bring so much sunshine and hilarity to our lives!
This is so funny (although probably not at the time) — what a cutie!
Laughter is good for the soul.
Thank you! 🙂
I’ll be sure to bring a few extra quarters if ever we meet. 😉
I love her Strawberry Shortcake names. She is a riot.
Can I please borrow Hope? She sounds hilarious!
love that kid .. gotta teach her to say ‘hey brother, can you spare a dime?’
*snort*
OMGosh! SO FUNNY and so embarrassing!
Oh. My. Goodness.
That is my daughter…
Kamryn, my lovely, sweet, but oh-so-vocal three-year-old has done that at McDonald’s!!! She has also repeated other facts quite out of context.
I am about to embarrass myself, hopefully it makes you feel better 🙂
One time, I got the brilliant idea to use Nair bikini cream…
Some of the cream accidently got… a little closer then it should have.
My daughter went to a birthday party the next day telling everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) that “Mommy burned her pee-pee by touching it with her special cream.”
I left shortly after.
Kids… you gotta love them!
DYING over here!!!!!!!
😀
love it! makes me think of that post you did about her as your one-year old therapist or something… she knows how to lighten things up!! hahahaaaa love!!
I love kids with character, Hope seems to have an abundance.
My grandson, who has Asperger’s and is bothered by certain noises created a scene at McDonalds once. He stood up on the bench and asked everything to please be quiet because he was trying to enjoy his dinner. Later in the playroom a lady asked me if she was really being that loud. Ehhh! I explained the situation and she told me that her daughter (2) had just been diagnosed with an ASD and we talked for an hour nonstop. LOL
As far as the escape artist goes, I’d say pray for a sixth sence, sonic ears and nerves of steel.
Where’s Art Linkletter when you need him? (I think he’s dead, or 108 years old, but you get the point.) Too funny. And the $20 would have been nice! My 14 year has found the OLD Potty Video on YouTube – remember Prudence and JAcob making wee wee and poo poo? Well the boy version has a line, “and penis for making wee wee.” What three words did Mia pick up from the entire video? “And a penis, and a penis and a penis.” That popped out (pardon the visual) in CHURCH on Sunday. Lovely!
At least in this economy people will nod and smile at your. Small comfort! The girls sound like pips.
KIM
Absolutely hilarious! Ah, good story to enter the oral tradition files to be told again and again!
LOL, what a great story. I suppose I should stop telling Laurie “we have no money” whenever I don’t want to buy her something when we’re out!
=D lol!!! We don’t have any money either. Well, at least not in my wallet. I’d be no fun in either of those places!
ha ha. Daniel does this to me all the time. “we don’t have any money?” he questions. His favorite show in the world Wheel of fortune, he desperately wants to go to. I told him in was in CA and very expensive to go there. Now he walks around saying, “when we get some money we can go to wheel of fortune”. sigh. I need to write about that one too. They keep us on our toes don’t they?
Yet, another “mess”… I’ve got one of my own. Her name is Amelia. Today she came home with thoughts about an earthworm and its anus. Yep, that’s what I wrote. With 3 older brothers, she sometimes loses all sense of etiquette.
We’re both a continual work in progress. Have mercy.
And tell Hope we have no money also!
peace~elaine
Apologies for replying to an old entry that I found by coincidence, but this is hilarious!