Bad Ideas #756-772

So, let me just preface this by saying it is SUCH a bummer that Patrick works evenings and weekends.  (He's off Mondays and Tuesdays and works 4p to Midnight)  This means that every weekend night...I am at home alone with Kellen.  Not that I don't loooove spending time with my buddy...I DO...but weekend nights are times when the whole family gets to be together, have dinner, converse, have special times...all that.  I feel really lonely on the weekends when Patrick is gone.  Especially when I try to hang out with other people, but I can't because they are going to do adult things...no children allowed.  Let's be frank, a 19 month old is not a very relaxing person to be around.  


I really need more mom friends.  I know a few...but as I said earlier...they have husbands and usually spend time with them and their families on the weekends. (PS, Patrick will read this and immediately feel guilty--so I should say...by NO MEANS do I feel anger towards you honey--quite the opposite, because I know you'd much rather be at home with us, too.  Our work schedule is just the nature of our jobs and it's a bummer, but I'm SO PROUD of you!!  You are an AWESOME police officer!!  AND I LOVE YOU!!)  Now, back to my story...


Last night I got a good taste of what it's probably like to be a single mom.  And let's just say...it tastes BAD!!


So, since it's just me and the little man...I decide to take him for pizza.  He LOVES pizza!!  If he sees pizza, or hears about pizza, he will holler "tee TA! Tee TA!!  TEE TA!!!"  So I got us dressed and took us to Grimaldi's, the Roth family's FAVORITE pizza joint/restaurant.  I thought it'd be a nice time for us.


So, I drove us up to Allen...a 20 minute drive, find parking...and pray there's not a 45 minute wait.  They have a table available, but it's one of those booth-on-one-side, chair-on-the-other setup, and I can't do that with a kiddo in a high chair.  So I say I'll wait the possible 20 minutes.  Kellen was good, sitting with his plastic pizza beeper they give you and eating little Gerber snacks.  They summon us after about 15 minutes...thank God because he was starting to get a teensy bit restless and wanting to walk around.  They take us to ANOTHER booth-on-one-side, chairs-on-the-other setup--but this time it's a four seater, so I just figure I'll sit next to him.  She offers a booster.  I'm thinking...oh crap, we've never done a booster.  OK, I'll try it.  THIS would be the SECOND BAD IDEA of the evening.  He will have NOTHING to do with the booster chair.  It was almost like he was terrified of it.  Would not sit down in it.  The hostess just kind of looked at me, saw the Gerber snacks, and tried to say..."Oh look what you have here!  Look!  Yum!"  He was completely oblivious.  I took the booster seat away and just had him stand on the booth.  He calmed down a bit. I grabbed the little container of sugars and dumped it in front of him and he instantly calmed down.  He LOVES the container of sugar packets.  Usually we won't let him play with it, but at this point I don't care. I'm thinking already, what the hell have I gotten myself into...this is bad...I should go home...etc etc.  But for some reason, I won't give up on my image of a nice time having pizza with my boy.


The waitress comes and I order.  Kellen is already all over the place, the native is RESTLESS.  She has a very understanding face and says, "I'll bring bread!"  I say OK!  At this point, I should have insisted on a high chair.  She leaves and he is a wild man, trying to grab at all the salt and pepper shakers on the table.  When I say "no", he cries and twists around in the booth, and I am holding him and whispering in his ear (in case he understands) "Pleeeeeeease, please Kellen...be good for Mommy. Pleeeease stop crying so people won't stare at us and I won't look like a complete idiot for bringing you here.  Pleeeeeease!"  Unfortunately, he doesn't understand me.  OR, he couldn't hear me over his crying...not sure which... So, I give in on the salt and pepper shakers as well.  He calms down and is putting all of them, as well as the red pepper shakers all on a plate.  He seems to like this activity and it's not too destructive.  Meanwhile, there is another waiter that keeps coming to an adjacent table, and I am STARING HIM DOWN like crazy hoping he'll glance my way so I can get him to get me a high chair.  He leaves and comes back like FIVE times and NEVER looks my way.  ARGH!!!  


Finally the waitress comes back with our drinks and I think Kellen will be happier with a little apple juice.  He sees it "JOO! JOO!"  He's literally trying to climb onto the table to get at it.  I'm pouring it into his sippy cup and I give it to him...but he wants NONE of the sippy cup.  He wants the bottle of juice itself.  And he is whining and fussing.  It's AWESOME.  I give him the bottle (with the cap on tightly).  The cap being on upsets him greatly.  It's just a miserable mess.  I take a huge sip of my sangria.  He sees the cherry in it and wants it.  He reaches his hand directly into my drink and takes out the cherry.  I say...okay, here, have it.  Another few moments of silence.


This is where I decide...this is just one of the WORST IDEAS I HAVE EVER HAD!


The guy who was earlier not responding to my intense stares comes with our pizza and I decide to give up this fight for a nice little pizza dinner with my 19 month old.  I say to our waitress, who has also arrived..."You know...this was NOT a good idea, can I just get the pizza to go???"  She, very warmly and wisely, says...do you want a slice now for him?  He is next to me...TRYING TO CLIMB ONTO THE TABLE (lovely) and he is almost-screaming "TEE TA! TEE TA!", so I think...probably a good idea, and say yes.


Ah...pizza...  Finally all is right with the world.  Kellen sits down and I cut up pieces for him and he is happy.  For a minute...I almost think that maybe we could just stay.  But, the last 45 minutes have worn me down and I am defeated.  I just want to get the heck out of there.  Then...Kellen sees the water with the straws.  He stands up on the booth and is grabbing for the straws.  I bring the water towards him to drink.  He is sipping the water through the straw and is super-cute.  Then he's having some pizza.  Again...all is good.  


Until he reaches again for the tall glass of ice water and, of course, pulls it down so it can pour onto my lap.  An AWESOME ending to an AWESOME evening filled with AWESOME ideas.


The waitress, by the way...gives me my sangria for free...and I give her an $8 tip.