Innocence...and a little more humiliation

So even though I vowed never to return to the Albertson's on the loop in Denton after Bella's last stunt there...it's just so darn close that 2 days ago I ended up there once again. However I was holding my breath that Jeff from register 7 would not be there, of course he was indeed...he is always there. Why couldn't Bella have picked the flaky, dirty girl who never seems to show up for work to humiliate me in front of rather than the employee with the best attendance of all time???!!

Anyway, so Bella and I are rushing through picking up just a few things. I figured what could she possibly do in 20 minutes at 8:00 in the morning...I now know that I grossly underestimate my daughter's ability to make every situation the most time efficient as possible to accomplish her goals. (Sounds like her Daddy to me...)

Headed to the produce section to pick up a few bags of salad (horribly over priced by the way and if I ever get ecoli...I am gonna be ticked) Bella does a double take at a large man standing at the tomato and avocado section. Nothing abnormal right? Sure, if you are not a 2 year old with a big mouth. There was nothing strange about the man to me as I see people with dark skin, light skin, yellow skin all the time. However not only was this the darkest (I mean DARK) black man that I had ever seen, he also had a huge bushy black beard and a head of bushy black hair to match. All I thought as we passed him was "Man, I bet he gets pretty hot in the summer time with all of that hair and beard." Bella on the other hand had eyes about to pop out of her head in silent awe until she suddenly blurted out
"Mommy, DERE SA BEAR IN DA GWOSHWY STORE!!"
I don't think that I can accurately describe the level of humiliation that I felt at that very moment. Yet it was about to get worse...
I said in a hushed voice directly in her tiny little face "Bella, Look at me right now. Do NOT say that again. That is a not a bear".
Bless her heart, just like when she spots a bug on the back porch and I can't see it...she was ready to try her hardest to get Mommy to see that there was indeed a bear in the grocery store.
"No, right dere Mommy! I see it! It's a bear in da gwoshwy store!!"
Her eyes were huge with excitement and fear. I on the other hand felt such an intense shade of red all over my entire body that I feared I was going to ignite right there on the spot. This was worse than the tooting incident. Worse that the Dr's office asking everyone as they came out of the bathroom if they had pooped or not. Worse than her pulling 1/2 of my boob out of my shirt in front of about 20 people after Andy had just finished speaking. Even worse than the day I started my...girly monthly visitor and our school secretary who was a little hard of hearing marched from classroom to classroom, each one full of my peers, announcing that "Emily Kuykendall is out here in the hallway and she needs a Kotex."

This was worse than all of that. I was so nervous that she had offended this guy and here I was with the racist 2 year old! However, the truth of the matter was that this was nothing but innocence at its finest. Bella sees people with different skin than hers all of time and it has never even crossed her mind to think of that as strange. But this guy...not to be rude, really did resemble slightly to me and for sure to the 2 year old mind a bushy, hairy, dark bear ready to make some guacamole.

To end the story, this guy (thank the Lord!!) actually got quite a kick out of Bella's analyzing him and in fact turned to her with a huge grin and gave her a little growl. All I can figure is this was not the first time that this had ever happened to him. Nonetheless I was still so embarrassed and high-tailed it to the check out for fear of what she might say next. I was just waiting for someone in a wheel chair to come around the corner and have Bella need to give her 2 cents about them as well...again in innocence, but geez kid!

As we get in the car, I am still reeling from the entire incident what does Bella have to say about the recent turn of events?

"Does bears eat tomatoes Mommy?"

"I don't know Bella...I bet they probably do."

"I tink dey do Mommy. I tink dey do."