Date Night? Screw That! Let’s have a date day!

Taking advantage of the fact that a) Boof hasn’t started work yet (9 more days, folks!), b) we’d already paid up for the week on daycare and let’s not ruin Potamus’ excellent attendance record (7 days to be exact AND let’s not ruin his getting used to the schedule) and c) it’s a holiday for us education/government folk, we headed off into the great foggy gray city of Seattle for a fun-filled date day.

Per usual, our date was planned around food, the doughnut shop in Pike Place Market and a groupon at this divey bar for lunch. We arrived at the market BEFORE there was anyone around, which is a first, and we got to see our city through the eyes of a tourist…but, like a backstage tourist at Disneyland where you get to see Mickey without his head on and where they fold the sheets. Because the flowers and produce were set up, but none of the other vendors. BONUS was getting coffee in the first  Starbucks..there was NO line. None. Zip. Zero. Nobody else in the store except us. Which has never happened (hence why I’ve never been in there in the, ahem, 30 years I’ve been alive…also, nobody gives coffee to a baby, so maybe there wasn’t a line when I was a kid, but I don’t remember…).

We walked, and talked, and took photos with my sweet new cell phone camera. Wet met up for lunch with an old co-worker(twice) and friend. And to top of the excellent day, was going to pick Potamus up at daycare/school, only to find him HAPPILY playing and he crawled over with a HUGE smile on his face, instead of his normal I’m-so-happy-I’m-going-to-cry-because-you-might-leave-again face that he normally gives me when I get there. Heartwarming.

Though, I’m pretty plumb tuckered out, and there’s still a few hours left until I get to sleep!

Boundaries

As a rather intimidating person, (my sister says I have the ability to change the temp of a room by walking in), I was shocked in the change of the general public in relating to me while I was pregnant. Normally my height, size, and general energy that I put out, left people leaving me alone while out and about. Somehow my pregnant belly was seen by these same people as an invitation to talk to me, ask me personal questions like the gender of the little womb-traveller, or the date when I would be pushing this being out of my vagina. Yeah, I mostly was annoyed by the lack of boundaries that happened while pregnant, but nothing prepared me for the even thinner boundary between me and the public by having Potamus with me.

So I braved a trip to Target on my way to baby group. I was running in for cold medicine and a birthday gift for my 8 year old half-sister. 10 minute trip, tops. With cold meds in hand (er…cart) I loomed over to the toy aisle, when BAM, Potamus decides that he no longer wants to be shopping and begins to cry. We’re not talking a little fussy wahwah, but a full blown screaming fit, with flailing arms, red face and tears streaming down his miniature face. Cheap cold meds weren’t worth standing in a long line, so I headed toward the door.

And that’s when a grumpy woman in sweats came up to me and said “oh, I love the little new baby cry”. Really lady? You think THIS is the time to COO over my baby, now that I am clearly rushing to get out of the store? She then proceeded to FOLLOW me toward the door asking 372 questions about Potamus (gender, age, etc). Seriously. She wanted to know whether the screaming human in my shopping cart had a pens or a vagina. If I wasn’t trying to compose myself and get the hell out of there without ruining the rest of the shopper’s morning, I could have probably thought of a witty/snarky remark to put her in her place, making her think twice about personal boundaries, but instead I just lifted his car seat out of the cart and carried it out the door, with her standing next to the candy/gum staring at me.

Weirdest experience ever. 

A Whole New World

For some reason the lyrics to Alladin’s “A Whole New World” keep running through my mind, especially the first line “I can show you a world, shinging, shimmering, splendid…” Surely these lines weren’t written about a mall’s bathroom, but alas, my new found mommyness is having me look at the world in a whole new way.

I have been ushered into this whole new world of mall-going-with-baby by an old friend from collge. She has an almost 2 year old daugher and finds that drinking Starbucks in the mall play area is a much easier way to get in conversation than doing it an actual Starbucks. Probably less shattered coffee mugs and temper tantrums upsetting snobby coffee patrons. To be honest, before Potamus was born I wasn’t even aware that the mall had a play place, let alone that it would be strategically placed next to a Starbucks. And a maternity store. And 4 children’s clothing stores. A Hello Kitty store. AND a candy store. Yeah, somebody was thinking in the strategery of building this wing of the mall. I am seriously questioning my lack of observational skills, but then again, perhaps my brain needs to compartamentalize things and realized that before now, the play-place in the mall was as relavent to my life as those pushy dead sea salt scrub sellers.

But beyond these already amazing new learned experiences was the cherry on top of the whole sundae: the family “lounge.” Not to be confused with your run-of-the-mill family bathroom, that is really a glorified handicapped bathroom with a changing table, this lounge lived up to its name. Wide enough stall for a deluxe jogging stroller, a television with leather chairs AND toys and magazines for kids/parents to read, resembled a chic doctor’s office more than a public restroom. And, for breastfeeding mamas like me, the best part was a few private nursing stations with a leather chair and a curtain to pull for privacy. While I am not opposed to nursing in public with my nursing cover, the fact that there is a private place to step away for a few minutes before resuming shopping seems downright heavenly. In fact, while I am not much of a mall shopper, I might just start perusing the stores simply to be able to use that family lounge.

Wow, admitting that makes me sound really sleep deprived.

Clearly I will chalk this up to things-I-never-thought-I-would-do-or-think-while-having-kids list that I am creating. But seriously, this whole new world of things catering toward parents is downright flabbergasting.