Ice cream...and parenting?

I enjoy ice cream...but given that I'm not an avid fridge-/freezer-checker, I'm usually the last to know about any frozen delights in the house. By the time I finally get around to foraging in the kitchen, about 90% of the goods has been eaten, digested, and excreted. Doh!

My mom doesn't buy ice cream often, but on the occasion that ShopRite has a sale on Breyers' half gallons for $1.99 or $2.49, we can expect that she'll buy a carton. We are faithful to Breyers' ice cream; it would be a sacrilege to purchase the ice cream of any other brand. Don't expect to find Ben & Jerry's, Häagen-Dazs, or Godiva ice cream in this house!

Now, my mom is a very particular person. In all my twenty-three years of thriving existence, I've known her to purchase only three ice cream flavors--coffee, orange sherbert & vanilla, and occasionally, neapolitan (which counts as three, I guess). Those were the three ice cream flavors I grew up with. No mint chocolate chip, no rocky road, definitely no cookie dough or butter pecan. Coffee, orange sherbert & vanilla, and neapolitan.

So it shouldn't be mildly shocking that I was absolutely appalled when I spotted this sucker in our freezer:

Me [rummaging]: BLACK RASPBERRY CHOCOLATE!?!?!
Ma: 對啊.是新的味道. (That's right. It's a new flavor.)
Me [still recovering from the initial shock]: What! Ma, you never buy weird flavors. Coffee, orange, and the one with three flavors!
Ma: 哈哈,是啊是啊. (Haha, yes yes.)
Me: Wow, I'm so surprised.
Ma: 我是想看看你們的反應. (Well I wanted to see your reaction.)
Me: So it was a setup!!

I think I'll stick to the magic three when I have kids, too. When I introduce a new flavor every few decades, it'll be a setup for appalling elation. Pretty ingenious. I highly recommend Breyer's black raspberry chocolate ice cream, by the way.