I'm turning into my mother :)

Not that it is a bad thing, generally, but in this case, I should know better :)

When I was young, I used to always ask my mom to tell me stories.  Since I was apparently obsessed with needles and animals, her "go-to" story was about the time she went to the zoo and the zookeeper let her play with a baby lion.  Then, to satisfy my injection requirement, she told me that the lion scratched her, and she had to go to Dr. Goldstein and get a needle.  I loved that story, and I truly believed it…she probably told it to me 200 times over the years.

Years later, when she told me she made it up, I was angry.  Like, legitimately angry.  I used to tell my friends the story about the time my mom played with lions, and every time I would go to the zoo I hoped the zookeeper would "pick" me to be the one who got to go back and play with the secret stash of wild baby animals, haha.  Now, in retrospect, I realize I was probably too old to still believe this story at the point she burst my bubble, but still…NOT HAPPY.

Even though I know better, tonight I did the same thing to Charlotte (who, strangely, is similarly obsessed with needles and animals).  It was during dinner, and her new thing is that she wants me to tell her a story while she is eating…it happens to be the only method that results in her consuming any food, so I oblige.  Tonight, I had a brain freeze and couldn't think of any good, original, true stories…so before I knew it, I was telling the lion story as if it had happened to me.  I made the story even better, though, with more details and embellishment, haha (mostly because it takes her about 1.5 hrs to eat a slider-sized hamburger).

However, after I told her the story was over (following my trip to the doctor for a needle, then a second appointment to check for infection, a prescription for antibiotics, and some stitches), Charlotte looked at me and said, "mommy, you just never should have gone into the cage…and the zookeeper should never have let you in there.  He should have told you that lions are dangerous animals and they can hurt you.  Silly".  She thought it was a ludicrous scenario.  And she is 3.5.  I don't want to say how old I was when my mom broke the news to me :)

Xoxoxo