Yesterday we went to lunch with our somewhat reclusive friends, David and Susan. Kate hasn't seen them since she was Sarah's age and Sarah had never met them. They live, oh, 3 miles away from us, maybe. Happily, Thumbs Up, a diner we've long loved, opened a location about 2 blocks from David and Susan's house and we were able to lure them over there with the smell of fresh bacon.
When we got there they were already outside, staring wordlessly at the "sculpture" in front of the diner. It's this weird little stick figure type thing carrying a cup of coffee. We arrived with all our kid crap we're forced to carry with us any time we want to so much as go to the bathroom, plus the two kids. Kate had already managed to completely rumple her pig tails and Sarah was looking humiliated in her adorable bunny ear hat (Thank-you, Chris and Sonya). David and Susan admitted right away to being hung over. Our lives have taken very different paths.
Kate, who is usually delightful in a restaurant setting, was bouncing off the walls. If she sensed at all that David and Susan are not kid people by any stretch of the imagination, it did not deter her. We sat in a booth and while Sarah was content in her little portable highchair at the end of the table (we sometimes forgot she was there), Kate was a frenetic blur the entire time. She was situated between Susan and me on the bouncy booth seat and she was on everything. Much of the time I was unable to see or hear Susan because I had a 2 and 1/2 year old in my ear. Literally. We managed to have a good visit regardless and I have to admit to being somewhat amused by Susan's polite horror when Kate got too close to her with greasy, peppery french fry hands. Kate was so spastic I wondered if she even noticed David and Susan were there at all.
She did notice. Six hours later, while twirling around the kitchen floor and stopping to hug our legs and introduce herself "Hello! My name is Kate! Your name is Mommy!" she said "I had fun with David and Susan today!" I was glad to hear it. They probably went home, took some Advil and thanked their lucky stars they opted not to have kids.
3 comments:
"Restaurant" is not in Irene's vocabulary
Two and a half is hard for restaurant social. We pretty much stopped going from the time Lauren was about 13 months, until she was just over 3 and could be entertained with coloring or playdoh. Around 18 months, we realized that we could do a lunch...or evening drinks and an appetizer, or dessert...but her attention span couldn't carry us through dinner.
That's what we do, we kidless folk. We go out with the kid laden and are reassured that we have made all the correct choices. I would guess that David and Susan are even less kid people than I am. I can have some fun with them as long as I get to give them back.
Post a Comment