Happiness at the midtown Whole Foods

Once again we'd planned our Sunday poorly and found ourselves starving at 2:00PM and still needing to go to the grocery store. Our list for the week was so short (I very cleverly chose our menu items based on what we've already got hanging around) that we decided we could hit Whole Foods instead of the always annoyingly crowded Farmer's Market.

We picked up our few items and grabbed food and beverages to fill our gumbling bellies, then sat down to eat. Finally. Once we'd inhaled our food, we gathered ourselves together and instructed Kate to close her bottle of juice so we could leave.

"Can you please help her with that?" Jeremiah, arms full of Sarah, asked me, indicating the screwing of the bottle cap back on to Kate's juice. I watched as Kate manipulated the cap and bottle.

"She's getting it - she's learning" I said. Then Kate successfully replaced the bottle's cap and Jeremiah and I exploded into congratulatory peals of applause and "very good!"s as though Kate were, well, three. She was very gracious, smiling beguilingly while rolling her eyes at us. She held her freshly closed bottle aloft and indicated it with a flourish, musically saying "Ta-dah!" I laughed so hard I nearly blew some of the new blended espresso the Allegro coffee bar people are hocking right through my nose. Teary-eyed, I gazed across our booth in the storefront window at my little family. Sarah sat perkily on Jeremiah's lap, laughing because he was laughing, Kate leaned on his shoulder. For a minute I didn't think about work or the messy house or the pets or if we'd have enough money to survive retirement, I just stared at the 3 people I love most in the world and felt certain I couldn't possibly be any happier.

Then we came home and I started to handle a few items I'd been putting off online, and Kate hit the power key on my laptop, unceremoniously (and improperly) turning it off and I thought "I could be a little happier".