I have a secret. I like Champagne. On Tuesday mornings.
Not every Tuesday mind you. But every so often, after I drop Anni off at school, baby boy and I have some quiet time together. By 9 o’clock, we share a chair at Sunflower Cafe. His warm pudgy legs slung over mine. I order Trane a yogurt and fruit parfait and for me? One hot latte and one delightfully cold glass of sparkling wine.
For one hour, we cuddle, share breakfast, and mommy gets a bit of bubbly. I cut up his strawberries, apples and blueberries, eating the hard nuts in the granola and spoon feeding him banana yogurt. It’s our hour…just the two of us.
By about the time I finish my grocery list (our Tuesday afternoon stop), Coltrane starts throwing his raisins. Time to leave. Now it’s usually warm enough for the playground and I’ve had more than my fill of his half masticated bits of apple that he has recently started trying to feed me (blah!) We play on the swings before picking Anni back up from school awhile later.
It is these quiet times that give me strength and calm to deal with the occasional stresses of being a Mommy. And I am profoundly grateful for our secret hour this very past Tuesday … because once we reached the Safeway market, poor little Anni exploded with such a ferocious round of runny-tummy that we sat stranded in the Women’s Toilet. For an hour. Baby Trane ate unpaid-for Kale Puffs while locked in the grocery cart’s safety harness looking mildly alarmed. I stood by poopy Anni, hoping she’d feel better enough to get home. We had no cell service in that florescent restroom so there we sat. A sick 3 year-old, a baby eating essentially stolen food, and this Mommy.
Finally, I was able to make a run the Baby aisle for Pull-Ups!!
Dodging a pinhead restroom attendant calling out “hey lady! No merchandise into the restroom!!” I wheeled my grocery cart back into that Safeway potty with such finesse, locked the door, whipped Rapunzel Pull-Ups onto my sick toddler, and raced for home. Stolen puffs in hand. Not my finest hour. But once I had Anni back on the porcelain throne, I said a deep moment of Thanks for that one hour of calm and those happy little billowing bubbles in my secret glass of champagne…
