Sit down and shut up!

Saturday night, at the insistence of my family, we went to dinner with our beloved boy. Mistake number 1. Upon asking my mom if the place was "kid friendly", she told a little white lie and said it was. Mistake number 2! We arrived at the dimly lit, for-couples-only joint around 6:00 pm. Gideon did fairly well until about 6:02 pm. That's when all hell broke loose. After 2 dirty diapers, countless screams, and about 40 dropped toys, dinner arrived. Noah and I proceeded to shovel dinner into our mouths as quickly as possible, while juggling a cranky child while the rest of our party ate leisurely and talked. About what, I have no idea. I was dealing with an angry little man. We spent the evening walking around the restaurant and throwing up. Not so much for dinner conversation, my son. What struck me is that last night, I became "that mom". You know, the one with the baby in the trendy restaurant where babies don't belong. The one with the screaming kid that gets "the look". Yup. She is my worst nightmare, and last night she became my reality. I realize now that maybe I have been a little too critical of moms out in public. Sometimes there's just not much you can do for a cranky child. And sometimes one gets goaded into being out in public, when she knows good and well it wasn't a good idea. Sort of mommy peer pressure. I should have listened to my gut and passed on dinner. Somehow I knew Gideon couldn't handle it, it had been a rough week already. Maybe I should have pushed for anApplebee's sort of joint, where loud kids are actually encouraged, and the menu includes such items as chicken "fingers" and "riblets". Food that does not exist in nature. Maybe, shoulda, woulda, coulda . I spent most of the night after leaving dinner in a rush in tears. Just feel like a bad mom not being able to control the uncontrollable. While I know it's crazy, it's true. Thankfully Gideon had a better evening when we got home. Noah said it was probably because he knew his jig was up and he'd be that baby on the news in the shoe box on someones door if he didn't cool it. He was probably right. The boy seems to have a sixth sense about when he's about to cross that parental line of no return. So, 2 days of dissecting later (hey, what do you expect, I'm a woman and a mom, I harbor all the world's guilt!) I have decided that going out to dinner is for people sans children. There it is. My big epiphany.

Oh, and the sit down part of the title? Well, apparently that's the milestone that's been keeping Gideon up at night here lately. He has mastered the sit! Yup, our young man can sit alone with no help from momma as of Saturday. Sniff. He's so cool!