At "The Club"

This morning Elliot was talking about going to "the Club" and finding testers. It took me a minute to realize his "the Club" was the Price Club or Costco, where we went yesterday with some friends. There were testers giving out free treats which my kids LOVE. There was also a cranky old man who apparently said to me "Leaving that child there alone, you should be shot". Paxten, who appears to be half mountain goat in terms of her balance, agility and strength, was sitting on the handle and front part of the basket of the cart. She had been there for several moments, and I was confident she was fine in spite of her dramatic whining "Momma! I'm falling!". The old crank must have heard that and saw her and pegged me as neglectful, judging and convicting me to a sentence of capital punishment for my crime against humanity. I didn't hear him, my g'friend did. When I turned back to them she said "I guess you didn't hear what he just said to you?" and then recounted his words. I thought for a minute of going after him, but really, what would I say back?

Also while we were there Elliot started fooling around and was calling out "ChunWen! ChunWen!" to AnnaWen. It surprizingly upset me and I still can't figure out why. I didn't want her to hear him say that. It's not a secret, she'll know what her Chinese name is/was, but I didn't want her to hear him calling her that right then, just two months home. I was worried it would upset her somehow, maybe remind her of what she had lost? Or maybe I felt guilty that we changed it, that if she heard Elliot calling her that she'd remember that we knew what she had been called and chosen to call her something different. I hushed him up quickly but battled with my confused thoughts for the rest of the day.

Ah, the excitement at The Club. Sounds posh doesn't it?

N