Scratch and Sniff

Today Ezra and I went to the dollar store to pick up some things for my lesson this Sunday. There was a HUGE line and he was not happy to be in my arms. He started squirming and screaming and while I was calmly trying to explain to him WHY he couldn't get down...a sticker of a cat on a skateboard suddenly floated into our conversation. We both turned to look at the tiny, Latina grandmother standing behind us holding a packet of stickers that she'd pulled from her purse. She explained in broken English that she spent a lot of time with her granddaughters and she often used stickers to stop problems like the one I was experiencing. She handed Ezra another sticker of a smiling Chihuahua in a baseball hat and then she said excitedly "ohhhh Manzana" and handed him his very first scratch and sniff sticker. After saying our thank yous and goodbyes, I hauled Ezra back to the car and showed him how to sniff the apple sticker. He laughed and tried to scratch the others...but after a while he figured out that there was something special about the scratch and sniff sticker. He spent the rest of the car ride like this...Ezra and I got to spend the afternoon in Palo Alto with my Indian friends, and he climbed right into the lap of a new teacher visiting from western Germany. I love that we are surrounded by so many cultures! If we get to stay in the Bay Area, Ezra will have been introduced to people from cultures that I only read about when I was growing up. I think that is so amazing!