"Welcome to Baby Hell"

That's what the dad of the Fam told me last night at dinner. We're at the shore this week (hence the lack of posting), and last night we went to dinner with a family who are long-time friends of the Fam. They have two girls, ages 6 and 4. So all nine of us were at this restaurant. It was small and crazy loud and crowded, and of course the kids were restless and also loud and fighting over the toys. Then it all started to tumble down around us. The younger daughter of the other family had a complete melt-down. The family decided to leave, it was so bad. At this point we had been at the restaurant almost an hour and still didn't have our food, so the poor mom had to wait another 5-10 minutes for her now to-go food to come out so she could go home. Then we had to wait another 15ish minutes after that for our food, both kids getting increasingly restless as bed time rapidly approached. All told, N and B did pretty well. There was copious peek-a-booing and on-the-spot game invention with objects on our table. In the end we finally got food, which was good but soooo not worth it. I was not technically working, so it wasn't really that stressful for me, I just felt bad for all the other adults (and the kids for that matter). And that, my friends, is another reason I will not be having kids of my own for a VERY long time.

The real excitement in life is that I fly to Spokane tomorrow for Anna's Tuesday evening wedding. I get to see friends, eat at Thai Bamboo and Tomato Street (I hope), see a dear friend get hitched, perhaps rig up a hammock with Claire in the Loop during Frosh arrival just for grins, and remember that New Jersey is just a temporary stop over on a long awaited return to the West.

Convenience

There is something sad about how very convenience oriented we Americans are. We want everything at one store (e.g. Target or Wal-Mart) or in bulk so we can shop less often, and if there is a drive through window, all the better. We ask, why can't we just slow down, chat with the person behind the counter, leave a few minutes early so you don't have to drive through for coffee. Why is convenience such a determining factor in our lives?
Because the baby is asleep in the back and if you wake her up she won't stop crying until she gets a bottle; because it takes the pre-schooler 15 minutes to go potty and put on shoes; because of the ever-present melt-down factor that can add a solid half hour to any excursion; because they both want to touch everything they see and want anything they can't have; because it's really hard to endorse a check and use an ATM with only one hand without the baby eating the check; because getting the stroller in and out of the trunk while juggling two kids and a purse and a diaper bag is not easy.
I'm converted. Convenience is awesome. American's may be self-centered, too fast paced, and engulfed by the need for instant gratification, but if that means I can get coffee almost every day from the drive through coffee hut without it disturbing the kids, then so be it. And if they put in a drive-up ATM at the local PNC, all the better.

True Beauty

N likes to say things are beautiful. Rays of light flowers, etc.
Yesterday he had a little accident at the park. He ran up to me and told me his poop was already coming out and it was a big mess. So I ran him over to the port-a-potty and he finished his business and I threw his messed undies in the port-a-potty. He looked in the hole and exclaimed, "My beautiful underwear!" And they weren't even a pair with Lightning McQueen (from Cars) or Spiderman on them, just plain old tighty whiteys. It was pretty cute, and thankfully not as big of a mess as he had led me to fear.

And my next post will not be about poop.