Smells Like Animal Planet

We took a trip to Big Lots last night. Greg was feeling crummy and it's his favorite retail therapy spot. Don't ask, just go with it.

Samantha and I are walking around while the boys browse electronics or some other such stuff, and she wants to pick a new cereal. No problem - Big Lots is our go-to for cereal choices (read: cheap!).

We find Kellogg's Wild Animal Crunch, with several different box designs - a panda, baby seals, polar bears, and the last choice we spotted, the meerkats. And with its claims of lots of whole grain, I was on board for picking up some of this Wild Animal Crunch. But back to the boxes (the pinnacle moment of the cereal selection process when you're four)...

"OK, so do you want the panda cereal, the polar bear cereal, the baby seal cereal, or the meerkat cereal?" I asked.

"Meerkats!" she replied with no hesitation. And why not? They're cute in that weird little ferret-y way, I suppose. See?

So meerkats it was.

Back at home, bedtime snack time rolled around as soon as we came in the door. Samantha was ecstatic to try her new cereal. She ran to her chair in an almost frighteningly Pavlovian way when "bedtime snack time" came out of my mouth.

I opened the box, and then the inner sleeve.

Hmm.

The smell reminded me of sawdust mixed with the most artifical vanilla flavor ever. Not completely awful in every way, but certainly interesting, and not wholly appealing. But, then again, what she likes and what I like seldom jive. After all, she eats those yogurt tubes, and let's face it, they are nasty. So I put on my best game face, raised my eyebrows at her to show my (fake) excitement, poured a serving into her Barbie bowl, topped it with milk, and served it up.

As I got back over to the counter, I heard her behind me. As only children can do, she summed up the smell much better than I.

"Well...it sure smells like meerkat."

I almost peed myself laughing.

Despite it's meerkatty odor, she finished off the bowl and smiled as she ran off to brush her teeth.

She has not, however, asked for more "meerkat cereal".

I am not surprised.