“I wanna do the orange thing like I do with Daddy!” Ari declared.
“What orange thing?” I asked.
“I’ll show you,” Ari replied.
Ari walked ahead of me, went into the kitchen, and laid out the following items:
I took note of the immersion blender cup. “Are you doing an experiment?” I asked suspiciously.
“Not an experiment!” he said.
“Are we juicing a clementine?” I asked as if it were the most preposterous thing I could imagine.
“Yes!” he said with delight.
“Why?” I asked.
“Daddy lets me,” he said. Then he added, “It’s the truth.”
(The addition of it’s the truth usually means it isn’t, but I knew my husband was working in the OR today so there was no way I was going to reach out to ask him.)
I traded the blunt knife for a sharp one and told Ari, “I’ll wash and cut, you juice.”
“Okay, Mommy.”
“Why are we doing this?” I asked.
“So, I can drink some orange juice.”
“But you drank orange juice for breakfast. And, besides, this isn’t going to give you that much juice. Also, do you really need a 16-ounce cup for a tiny amount of orange juice?
“Yes,” he replied with certainty.
After the clementine was juiced, Ari grabbed an enormous straw, stuck it in the cup and slurped up the fruits of his labor.
I had to laugh since I was in a Zoom meeting just yesterday where I heard someone ask, “Is the juice worth the squeeze?” I understood what she meant, but hadn’t heard the expression before (and subsequently looked it up to learn its origin). In today’s case, the juice was worth the squeeze for Ari.
* * * * *
A few hours after the juice squeezing, I texted Marc.
Apparently, Ari was telling the truth.
Also, I’m buying Marc a juicer for Father’s Day.
Raising Literate Humans 
You captured such a cute moment! I love the “it’s the truth.” Sounds like Ari knows how to go after exactly what he wants!
Such a small moment, stretched out to show the details. I love Ari’s “it’s the truth”. 🙂
His experimenting is paying off! I love that he wanted this juice and not juice from a carton. What fun!
This moment is so sweet, captured with details bit by but. Love thinking about how kids work sometimes for what we might deem teeny accomplishments. It felt big to Ari, and it felt big to me as a result. But perhaps more than anything, I appreciated the end. A text interchange between you and your beau. Parenting. This life. This constant team effort. ❤
Is the juice worht the squeeze? I love it! What a great story of love, patience, playfulness and the life-giving sense of adventure that kids share with us. Your dialogue drew me right along with you, and I loved how you interspursed it with your own thoughts. So much fun – you make this looks easy.
Bravo!
I completely agree with Ari, it has to be a big cup and a big straw. So worth the squeeze.
Your moments with your children are always a treat to read about Stacey. I love the easy back and forth dialog you captured here.