A New Torture For Parents

I have an annual lunch date with my guy best friend that I have been friends with since 8th grade. We always go in August but with all the stuff happening (and I didn't tell him because of the same reason I wrote about before. How do you put that in an email? If it is my kids, I have no problem sending out an email asking for prayers but I just feel icky sending out an email about this.) it was coming down to the wire. Long story short, we ended up going yesterday with our kids. He has an adorable daughter that is the same age as the twins. Isabella was excited about meeting his daughter. I think she thought they'd be fast friends. Tommy...not so much. He wanted to stay with Nico but these days, Nico wanders from place to place and I didn't feel right about leaving him. He complained the whole time in the car and after several warnings of, "You better be good" and "Don't embarrass me", I told them that we'd go buy shoes after (I'm sure you have an idea of where this is going).

Gia morphs into a monster at restaurants. She is as cute as a button and I love her but once past the initial excitement of being at a restaurant, something evil takes over. We walked into Red Robin and immediately, she squealed with delight over the carnival rides used as statues. She sat and colored for 30 seconds. She ate a few snacks and then was done. DONE! We hadn't even been brought our drinks. She entertained us with eating a lemon and then Tommy took her to walk around which normally, I am totally against but it was empty. Tommy started right away with wanting money for the game room. Gia had no interest in the food, dumbed a bag of chips all over and screamed until Belle agreed to walk outside with her. As predicted, my friend's daughter behaved so well that I forgot she was even there. Isabella would have been a close second but she and Tommy could not stop fighting: "your fry is in my ranch sauce, stop putting my apples in your teriyaki sauce." I think my friend and I talked for a total of ten minutes. It was great to see him and I enjoyed those ten minutes but next time, I am getting a babysitter for my kids. In the car after it was over, Isabella said she was said she didn't get to talk more with my friend's daughter. She said she really liked her.

I had to pick up a new gym uniform for Nico that you can only get at one store which happened to be across from Red Robin and next to Famous Footwear. Here is where the new torture comes in: buying new shoes for school. I said parents because I did see one dad doing it but it was mostly moms that looked like they should serve wine at shoe stores. It was a flipping nightmare! Gia was running all over the place. Tommy was insisting that he was a size that there was no way he was and Belle crying because I wouldn't buy her $80 gym shoes. While showing Belle the shoes she was allowed to get, I heard several people say, "What is that smell?" I looked and every one of them said it after Gia walked by them. Yep...at the one store that has nowhere to change her, my adorable little munchkin smelled like a garbage dump. After an hour of figuring out sizes and styles, dealing with the drama that is Belle and chasing Gia around, we finally bought shoes. Expensive shoes. After yesterday, Gia isn't going to be allowed in public until she is two.