Catch me if you can

Ari loves all books "touch and feel."  Page after page, he locates and palpates the fuzzy, the soft, the bumpy, the wrinkly, the squeaky, the whisker-y, and now-a-days his favorite, the sticky.

Here's an example.  The frog with sticky pads on its legs:

Little guy likes to place his index and middle fingers on the page and repeatedly poke the adhesive-y pads.   He has touched them so much, in fact, that they've lost most of their stickiness. 

But those pads must have been contagious...because Ari is now the one with the sticky fingers!

Yup!  Just last week, Ari broke the eighth commandment three seperate times! 

First, we were at Party Favors shopping for his b-day extravaganza.  While I picked up cups and plates, Ari was busy taking greeting cards off the shelves and placing them behind his head.  Before we checked out, I collected 2 cards and 1 envelope from his stroller.  (And then he was unsuccessful at securing the #4 candle from the stroller-level shelf.  But in the process of attempted robbery, he knocked all of the sparkler candles on the ground.  An employee walked over and gave us a dirty look.  Ari blew her a kiss.  <Sigh> He can get away with anything.)

The next day, we walked through CVS.  Thank goodness the clerk noticed the pack of gum Ari was trying hard to conceal from my view.  It wasn't even sugar-free!

And then on Friday, we took our morning walk to Trader Joes, picked up some necessities, paid, left, and walked home.  After we entered the front door, I removed Ari from his stroller, and found a carton of raspberries tucked under his tush.  I did not pick up any raspberries on that trip to TJ's, and I definitely did not pay for any either.  Sticky fingers likes fresh fruit!  (I promptly returned to the store and made Ari hand over the "hot" produce.  The manager insisted I keep them.  Red-in-the-face, I begged him to let me pay.  I told him I needed to teach my kid a lesson.)

I'm doomed.  My very-soon-to-be-1-year old is a kleptomaniac.