The Pop Rocks Incident

Zoe came home from preschool with a bag of treats in a Halloween bag. The first thing she pulls out is a little package of Pop Rocks. "I want some of these."

I'm sure you know what they are ... the fruit-flavored candy that sort of pops and fizzles in your mouth. I put the odds of Zoe actually enjoying a Pop Rocks experience at roughly 1,000,000-to-1 for two reasons:

1. She doesn't like much candy. While she's slowly becoming more of a junk food eater than she's ever been (and we'd like), she's more of a baked goods fan: donuts, cakes, pies, etc.

2. She's always had a "texture" issue. Certain textures immediately get spit right back out ... and you'd certainly think popping and fizzling would fit into that category.

So I explained to her I didn't think she'd like Pop Rocks.

"Yes I do."

I don't think so, honey. They pop in your mouth.

"I like that."

I don't think you will.

"Yes I will."

OK ... here you go. And, guess what? She thought it was hilarious. She ran around the kitchen laughing, candy popping and fizzling inside her mouth.

Zoe 1, Dad 0.

A couple minutes later, I was at the kitchen sink washing dishes when I hear: "Daddy, Alyse likes Pop Rocks, too."

I turn to see Alyse, mouth agape, with a stunned look of confusion on her face. She stuck her tongue out to reveal a couple fizzling Pop Rocks. I might have been wrong about whether or not Zoe would like them, but I'm 100-percent certain that Alyse did not.

Fortunately, Zoe didn't follow up the taste test with a sip of Coke. We all know that's how Mikey from the LIFE cereal commercials met his untimely death.