In her 3 and a half year old voice, she told her mother, “I want the round and round!”

Her mother said in a friendly stern voice, “Louise, you must be polite, because Jenn hasn’t finished eating. We can go find it after we are done.”

I laughed as Louise smiled broadly and continued to fidget in her chair.

Then her mother said to me directly, “I think that she means boba.”

In ten minutes, we strolled down the street as Louise ran ahead, jumping over manholes and related covers. Every few steps, her mother would say loudly, “Louise! Please wait!” Then she would add as we approach an intersection, “Car! Please come and hold my hand.”

When we go to Tapioca Express, Louise peered inside and instantly threw a tantrum. As her mother pulled her to the door, Louise dropped to the ground screaming. “I want round and round!!!”

Pointing a techy startup guy coming out with a large milk tea, her mother said, “Look! It’s bubble milk tea!”

“No!” Louise screamed.

I chuckled wondering what round and round meant. Eventually, we went back toward her mother’s car where halfway through the journey, Louise declared that she wanted round and round initially. Spotting a blue awning of a Mexican restaurant, Louise ran ahead and peered into the restaurant. Inside, a bubble gum machine stood where with a coin, a gumball would spin round and round sliding down a circling slide. Her mother gestured toward the bubble gum machine to the cashier almost apologetically, “We are here for this.”

Her mother opened her fashionable wallet and Louise jumped up to pull it down, sticking her hands in. I reached into my bag to find my wallet, but her mother found one first. Quietly, Louise took one quarter and put it into the machine. With both hands, she twisted the knob. A blue gumball dropped into the slide and it went round and round. Louise put her hand in the small metal door at the bottom waiting for the gumball. She grinned happily, holding the gumball in her hand.

I don’t know if she ever tried to eat it.