If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

There is a cute series of kid's books out that that start with "If you give a (specific animal) a (specific food item)."  The original musing involved a Mouse and a Cookie.  There are also missives about moose and muffins, cats and cupcakes and pigs with pancakes.

If you are unfamiliar with them, it runs along the lines of offering that certain food stuff to your animal buddy, who needs an additional item (milk or spinkles or something), which goes ever so slightly awry as your fury friend's OCD kicks in.  Spilled spinkles remind him of sand that sends you both to the beach - where you dig for treasure - and find a star fish - that reminds him of the heavens - that send you both to the planetarium - that gets you kicked out for using the rings of Saturn as a hula-hoop - that reminds him of playing basketball - that takes you both home to play a game - that makes him hungry - and you end up snacking on the original food stuff.  (My apologies to the author, Laura Joffe Numeroff, for the foregoing absolutely inaccurate  recitation of events.  Please feel free to plagiarize when you give a Bear a Brownie.)

Recently I disguised my stupidity with Granma bravery by volunteering to take Aidan (3) and Josiah (2) to a bookstore to buy books.  Steps one through four went reasonably well:  in the car, out of the car, across the parking lot, into the store.  Feeling pretty good!  Until older brother spies a toy truck and is no longer interested in books.  "But I want!"  (Granma won that battle.  The truck did NOT follow us home.)  Younger brother found a toy top, conveniently located on the bottom shelf - surrounded by books.  Fortunately, he was easier to distract.

Eventually, we picked some books (including If You Give a Dog a Donut) and made our way back to the front of the store to pay from them - passing a certain toy truck which the elder midget had not yet forgotten.  Sigh.  With the promise of a cookie, the truck was left behind if not forgotten.

So, what happens when you give a grandboy a cookie?  If he's a certain two year old love bug, he sits happily munching!  If he's a certain three year old, equally loving, but more into the bugging, he chooses a brownie (4 cubic inches in size).  And between bites, he acts out a book to you.  It goes like this:

If you give an Aidan a brownie, he will want a muffin....  If you offer that three year old a book, he will want a puzzle...  If you let him carry his book, he will want his own bag...  If he carries his own bag, you can put three cubic inches of uneaten brownie in it as well.  And the muffin remains untouched behind glass where it belongs.

Now, if you give a Granma enough time, she will want to do it all over again.  Senility, after all, has it advantages!