The anguish of the melting ice cream
August 4, 2006
He licked the scoop of ice cream and it fell onto the pavement. I took the picture right after I scooped it up and stuck it back on top of the cone.
He wasn’t upset about the fact that it fell. Or the fact that it might have dirt on it now. No, he was upset because some of the ice cream stayed behind on the pavement in a little puddle.
And that is NOT FAIR!
I did tell him to feel free to bend down and lick the pavement if that would make him happy, but my suggestion was met with even more anguished screams.
Oh to be five years old and lead such a tortured existence.
Posted by Chris @ 2:50 am
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So tragic. This sadness is not limited only to your house - at my place, there was weeping over the unfairness that brother got five whole minutes more with mommy because sister took longer in the bathroom… some days, I think I’ll take up drinking.
August 4th, 2006 at 5:00 amOh Chris, that is a FABULOUS picture! Not only in the artsy-ness of it, but in the building family stories for the future sort of way. MY five year old would truly relate.
August 4th, 2006 at 5:14 amBest picture I have seen in quite some time! And we went to the the Museum of Fine Art yesterday! You truly caught the PAIN of losing two licks of ice cream.
Is that a smirk on your other son’s face???
August 4th, 2006 at 5:35 amThe trivial things five year olds think are unfair! OMG do I remember those days. Love the pic!
August 4th, 2006 at 5:41 amLOL! My DS5 has started being all dramatic about stuff too… I just had to laugh when I saw this… *S* I love your response so much!!! *S*
August 4th, 2006 at 5:53 amOh that face! Too funny. I have a 7-year-old who is a drama “king” at times too and it’s just hard sometimes to not laugh, isn’t it?
August 4th, 2006 at 5:56 amThat picture is hilarious. He’s going to thank you some day for capturing him in one of his finest moments.
August 4th, 2006 at 6:00 amI love how your other son is so unconcerned in the background. Oh the drama!
August 4th, 2006 at 6:07 amOh my word! I love that you’re there with a camera to capture what is most likely one of the best candid photos I’ve seen in quite a while. Because, after all… there is NOTHING worse than losing part of your ice cream! Even if it’s only a small puddle.
August 4th, 2006 at 6:15 amIt would be NOTHING for me to have gotten down on the ground and licked it up - but you already know that. Poor kiddo. He looks positively TRAUMATIZED.
I need to remember to change my link to you. If I had done that already it wouldn’t have taken me so long to remember who you were, you lovely chica, you!
August 4th, 2006 at 6:46 amThat picture is fabulous (though I really do feel sorry for your son). I want to start signing every comment with “I love you!” but I’m trying to hold back.
August 4th, 2006 at 6:58 amThat is the BEST picture! OMG!
August 4th, 2006 at 6:58 amHe totally looks full of anguish!
I LOVE IT! Aren’t digital cameras so convenient? They are there at the ready and look at the gem you got. Did you look around after taking this to see the expression on other parents faces, like, what in the heck is that lady doing? I LOVE IT - great shot.
August 4th, 2006 at 7:07 amWhat a great picture. It should be entered in a contest or something. What agony in that little face.
Cas
August 4th, 2006 at 7:53 amWHAT a great picture! I really love his brother’s expression - so blase about the meltdown (har har).
August 4th, 2006 at 7:55 ami. know. that. look.
August 4th, 2006 at 8:02 amThis clearly wins for photo of the year. Take that, Time Life.
August 4th, 2006 at 8:03 amKeep this one for his high school graduation — or his wedding. And keep your sense of humor — it’s a great tool for keeping perspective!
August 4th, 2006 at 8:08 amThat is absolutely great! Poor kiddo. Life’s tough when you’re five.
August 4th, 2006 at 8:20 amLooks like he’s grasping that cone by the very endy end. It’s good that it didn’t topple onto the pavement a second time! Great moment that you caught!
August 4th, 2006 at 8:27 amOne of my friends has a picture of her little girl licking the melted popsicle puddle off the driveway.
Oh, these pictures… these types of pictures. There is a place in my heart - my cold, dead heart - where I love such pictures with ever fiber of my being. How cruel am I to love the pictures so well and so much???
Children… they are the entertainment of life.
August 4th, 2006 at 8:41 amWhat a great picture.
I love the brother in the background who just keeps on eating his cone.
Too funny and SO real.
August 4th, 2006 at 9:10 amThank you SO MUCH for posting this. I’m deliriously happy to know that my five-year-old isn’t the only one who would respond this way. I may even show this photo to my ex-the-shrink to show him that NORMAL kids — even ones who aren’t only-children — do this. ;^) (BTW, I love that your other son is calmly eating his ice cream in the background, oblivious to the drama before him.)
August 4th, 2006 at 9:34 amhahahahahahahahaha! Some days, it’s good to be mom.
August 4th, 2006 at 9:45 amYou know, upon thinking about it…you might want to send this to your local paper. It’s definitely a keeper.
August 4th, 2006 at 9:55 amReading this reminded me of our ice cream/kid experience. Hallah was 7 and eating an ice cream bar on a hot day while we walked through a Home Depot. As my wife and I were looking at something, Hallah sheepishly said “mom?!” We turned and saw her holding most of the ice cream in the hand that wasn’t clutching the stick. Her face went from confusion to wide-eyed terror after my wife quickly said “Well, put it in your mouth! What are you doing!?!” She slowly, reluctantly put the whole thing in her mouth, with a face that said ‘this isn’t right’. Soon after, we noticed the ice cream spot on the floor, where it had hit when it fell off the stick. Yep, my wife commanded her to eat ice cream off the Home Depot cement floor, when she was just asking where to throw it away.
August 4th, 2006 at 12:19 pmgreat picture. i love the expression.
August 4th, 2006 at 3:00 pmand i’m SO looking forward to the development of my son’s tantrums over the next few years. i just hope i have the creativity to make suggestions like you did (to lick the pavement)…
i love it!
Oh the paaaaaaain!!! He looks just like Spock when he was reading the Horta’s mind!
I know many kids who would have licked the pavement.
August 4th, 2006 at 3:56 pmMy fouryear old spent half an hour in tears today becuase I gave him the very last popsicle and it didn’t have a real popsicle holder, because we lost one, it has a toddler fork in it instead. He even gave me one of those choices I so often give him. He told me that if I don’t give him a popsicle with a real holder, then he’s not going to eat anymore snacks.
August 4th, 2006 at 4:24 pmYou forgot to mention the smug face on his brother, happily licking his unspoiled cone….oh, I’m laughing so hard it hurts…
August 4th, 2006 at 4:56 pmMy 30 year-old brother licked the pavement when he knocked over the venti latte I brought him from Starbucks.
Then again, he was once a Marine, so I’m sure he’s eaten far nastier chow off far nastier surfaces.
And I understand about the ice cream. I have a very special relationship with it myself.
August 4th, 2006 at 5:09 pmClassic. I have a friend that is going to adore this post, as that is something she would tell her children!!!!
August 4th, 2006 at 5:50 pmthat’s just humping hilarious.
August 4th, 2006 at 8:07 pmThat picture is great! I love it! My oldest is 4 and he’s also a HUGE drama king! Just this morning he was eating lunch in the kitchen and I was sitting in the next room on my computer. Suddenly I heard a clink of glass and heard a splash, then utter and complete silence. I asked if he was okay and got no response so I hurried into the kitchen to make sure he was still alive. He was just standing there in a puddle of water with his face all screwed up in a sort of silent scream. Being a mom, I had to state the obvious. “Oh honey, did you spill your water?” If only I knew I was unleashing the floodgates, I would have immediately run from the house with my hands over my ears! He took a deep breath and sobbed, “YYEEEEEEESSSSSSSS!!! AND IT’S ALL OVER ME MY FEET ARE WET AND MY LEGS ARE WET AND I THINK I’LL HAVE TO TAKE A BATH NOW BUT IT’S WAAAAAAAYYYYY TOO EARLY FOR A BATH BECAUSE BATHTIME IS ONLY AT NIGHT AND IT’S STILL DAYTIME AND I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M GOING TO DO BECAUSE IT’S AAAAAALLLLLLL OOOOOOOVEEEER MEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!” I had to work really hard not to bust up laughing right then and there because that would only have made it worse. But it was only water, you know like the kind used in the bath he mentioned, and there he was carrying on like he was the Wicked Witch of the West and I just threw a bucket of water on him! Ah, the memories!
August 4th, 2006 at 9:39 pmOMG! Every time I look at that picture I crack up! Oh the agony and pain of a little melted ice cream! Thanks for the laugh. Way to go on getting a great picture.
August 5th, 2006 at 5:27 pmUm,getting back to the timestamp on your post…were you really up at 2:35 a.m.?
August 5th, 2006 at 8:56 pmyou are seriously FANTASTIC. i want to be EXACTLY like you when i have kids.
lick the floor. i LOVE IT!
August 6th, 2006 at 7:20 pmHA! Awesome photo.
I thank the Sweet Jesus that my mom didn’t have a fast camera when I was a kid, because the number of embarrassing photos of me would be quadrupled.
August 6th, 2006 at 7:26 pmOh no, look at that face. Poor guy.
August 7th, 2006 at 3:58 pmThis is BRILLIANT. My brother did the same thing when his ice cream fell off his cone at a Freshman Orientation Ice Cream Social when we were 18.
August 8th, 2006 at 6:14 amRemember when we were walking around at BlogHer, that one time, or maybe twenty times, and you kept saying, “STOP. STOP TALKING NOW. I’M SERIOUS. STOP.”?
Stop. Stop blogging now. I’m serious. I cannot take this.
August 8th, 2006 at 8:50 pm