The Bubblegum Machine

Cami is a pretty cool kid. She is really not a whiner... Very even tempered; just your general "roll with the punches" type personality. I am always amazed that she is so willing to eat whatever we're eating, play with any toy that's available and participate in any activity. When it's time to move on to something else, she simply does.

So you can imagine my surprise when had an incident over, of all things, a bubblegum machine. Cami usually doesn't ask for material goods. When we are finished looking at toys in the store, I simply tell Cami it's time to put the toys back on the shelf and say goodbye and she does. No drama, no questions asked. Until we found ourselves in a small shop that had a few bubblegum and toy machines. In the store, standing in front of the the machines was a little boy I would guess to be about 4 years old. He was whining and carrying on over the machines. Cami closed in on the boy and observed him quietly. Well, I guess the boy finally wore down his mother because she handed him a quarter which he promptly popped into one of the machines, cranked the handle, lifted the door and pulled out his prize, flashing it in Cami's face as his mother escorted him out the door. At this point, Cami was intrigued. She began cranking all the handles that she could reach and lifting the doors of all the machines. Nothing. She turned her head towards me, stuck her bottom lip out as far as it could go and began to pout.