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credit card out of my wallet. 
    “ First time shopping, sir?”
she asks. 
    I look up, smile, and say, “First time
shopping with these two together.” I swipe my credit card and enter
my pin number. 
    “ Oh, I understand now. Thank
you and enjoy your snacks.” She smiles while looking at the kids in
the cart.
    I also look at them and they are laughing.
I’ll have to remember to not bring them shopping together without
Emma. 
    We beat Emma home and I make the kids help
carry the groceries into the house, since they picked most of it
out.
    “ Which one of you guys is
going to explain to Emma about all the snacks we
bought?” 
    “ I will, daddy, I’ll tell
her you didn’t know what to buy so you bought snacks.” Rae
giggles. 
    “ And I’ll tell momma that
you like snacks.” James also laughs.
    “ And I’ll tell her that you
said this is what she feeds you all day, and that Rae snuck
groceries in the cart when I wasn’t looking,” I say, tickling both
kids at the same time. 
    Emma walks in, smiles, and asks, “What’s
going on in here?” 
    The kids and I look up and they both take off
running. “Hi, Emma; bye, Emma,” Rae says, running past
Emma. 
    “ Hi, momma; bye, momma,”
James says, also running past her. 
    “ Hi and bye to both of you,
too. What was that about?” She walks over to me to kiss
me. 
    I kiss her back before answering. “We went to
the grocery store.” I nod in the direction of the counter where all
the snacks are. 
    She laughs and walks over to the too-full
counter. “You bought all this stuff?” 
    “ Well, I paid for it, but I
didn’t put it in the cart.” 
    “ Alec, there must be $300
worth of snacks here.” 
    “ Close, it’s $265.87 to be
exact,” I say, holding up the receipt.
    “ Well, I can tell you what
James picked out.” 
    “ I didn’t realize that you
have such a sweet tooth,” I say, looking at Emma. 
    “ What are you talking about?
I like some things, but I am very strict with sweets being in my
house.” 
    “ You mean that you and James
don’t eat Pop Tarts, donuts, and Toaster Strudels for
breakfast?” 
    She stops what she is doing and asks, “Is
that what James told you?” She doesn’t wait for me to answer. “Oh,
the little booger.” She calls sweetly, “James, could you come here,
please?” I almost feel sorry for him. 
    “ Yes,
momma.” 
    “ Honey, what did you eat
this morning for breakfast?” She asks, kneeling down to look him in
the eye.
    “ Um, we had oatmeal and a
banana.” 
    “ And yesterday, what did we
have yesterday?” 
    “ Uh-oh.” 
    “ Why would you tell Alec I
feed you junk food for breakfast?” 
    “ I didn’t. I said you and I
like those.”
    I think back on what James said and he is
correct. “I stand corrected; he did say that, Emma.” 
    “ James Maxwell, you are in
so much trouble.” 
    “ James, why don’t you go to
your room with Raelynn? Your mom and I will put the junk food, I
mean the groceries, away.” 
    James leaves without saying anything and I
hear Rae and him giggle from the bedroom. 
    Emma and I stand at the
counter and she starts picking out the goodies that James likes and
I start picking out the goodies that Raelynn likes. Some things are favorites of both Raelynn and
James. Once we are done, we both
laugh.
    “ Well, it looks like you
have been had by both kids.” 
    I look at the piles of junk food; the junk
food is almost divided up equally. 
    “ It looks like I’m a
sucker.” 
    “ Please tell me you did buy
something healthy we can eat?”
    “ I did, I bought fish,
chicken, and some fresh fruits and vegetables.” 
    “ Good, but from now on I’ll
shop with you.” 
    “ Fine by
me.” 
    We put the rest of the food away and she
makes a junk drawer in the kitchen for all of the junk food. She
also has to add a junk shelf in the pantry. Once we get dressed, we
all drive to taekwondo together.
    As soon as we get home from taekwondo, I
start the