Iris and I get off to a late start

So today is the first day of our Vegan Challenge, but we forgot. I thought it was Saturday, so I had the "Temple of Spuds" at Boogaloo's for lunch (potatoes with cheese, salsa, and sour cream), plus milk in my coffee this a.m. Iris had an egg salad sandwich for lunch. In the evening, Iris asked me to check whether it was our Vegan Challenge or not before she put cheese on her pasta. We determined it was, and she went without cheese. So I guess we started our Vegan Challenge tonight, after lunch.

Lola decided to take a "Veeeeg Challenge", too, so she declined her Parmesan cheese. Then she decided to take a "Vegetarian Challenge" instead, so she asked for cheese. After dinner, Iris idly popped a Goldfish cracker in her mouth. "Iris, that has cheese in it!" She froze, hunched over. Anton suggested, "Spit it out in the trash." She shuffled over, bent, to the trash and spat out the offensive cracker. I had the idea that some other crackers on hand might be okay, and it turned out that our perfectly palatable Roasted Vegetable Ritz crackers were vegan.

I offered Lola a Ritz, and she refused. "That is Veeeeg challenge, and I am vegetarian challenge!" She showily ate Goldfish crackers instead.

I made a menu for tomorrow, featuring tofu scrambles and pumpkin muffins for brunch and either vegan paella or corn chowder for dinner, plus frosted lemon cupcakes for dessert, and asked Anton to run by the grocery store so we'd get the morning off to a decent start without vegan faux pases. Anton made some sarcastic remarks about the subject of tofu scrambles. I fixed him with an evil eye.

Earlier in the day, before we realized we were on our Vegan Challenge, we stopped by a Starbucks because the snack parent had forgotten to bring snack to soccer practice. I had a coffee light frappucino; Iris had a vanilla soymilk and a pumpkin muffin. While I was waiting for my change, I told Iris to go sit down in one of a pair of wingback, comfy chairs in a set of four. She did, but an old woman in one of the other four chairs told her the chairs were taken and intimidated her into giving up. I was offended by this, because obviously the chairs were not claimed. I asked the only other person in the shop who could conceivably be using the chairs, and she was not. So I went right back over with Iris and sat down, and the old woman refused to meet my eye. My conclusion: she's another one of the many child-hating people who doesn't treat kids like real human beings. Iris is a polite, quiet child of seven who did nothing inappropriate at the Starbucks; she sat quasi-silently (I attempted without much success to engage her in conversation about her day) and nibbled and drank appropriately. She did not litter. She had as much right as any adult to occupy the chair, and she did so politely, unlike the older person who was needlessly rude to her.