The Missing Pickle Incident

Yesterday I took the girls to the park on their bikes. They had a great time riding around and working up a good appetite. We headed on over to a local diner-ish establishment for some grilled cheese sandwiches with fries. When the plates arrived each one came with an nice long 1/4 slice of a pickle. The Kid made it very clear that she was happy to have a nice pickle and she dove into taking a couple big bites. Lunch continued on with the regular Dad and Daughter conversation until The Kid noticed something.

The Kid: "Hey, where's my pickle? Dad, did you eat it?"
Me: "No Honey, I didn't eat your pickle, I saw you starting to devour it right away you probably finished it already."
The Kid: "No I didn't! I took two bites and put it right back on my plate"
Me: "Nobody here ate your Pickle. Z have you seen The Kid's pickle"
Z: "It's not in my tummy. Maybe it's on the floor."

We all looked on the floor but to no avail. I was convinced that The Kid had so swiftly eaten her own pickle that she just forgot. Lunch continued on without another incident and we occasionally joked that this lunch would always be remembered for the missing pickle incident. As lunch came to an end I made mention of the pickle one last time and thats when Z felt the need to share.

Z: "I ate the pickle, it's in my tummy. I reached over and I sneaked it away!"
Me: "Really Z, you ate the pickle."
Z: "No."
Me: "Oh, so you didn't eat it"
Z: "I wanted it, it's in my tummy."
Me: "So you did eat the pickle."
Z: "I ate-ed it."

Mystery solved. Later the next day when retelling the story with Z present she added that she "sneaked it away and ate-ed it under the table." It's kind of funny that her presence under the table is such a regular occurrence that I didn't even think twice about it.