All Together: "Aww!"

Hank and I were feeling very adventurous on Saturday, and decided to take Maddie with us to dinner, clothes shopping for Hank, and then grocery shopping. This was a big trip for us, and she did great!

After my years working in the restaurant business, I now feel very worried about how my baby will behave in restaurants. I am terrified that I am going to be the mom with the screaming baby irritating everyone in the entire establishment. When I was a manager at Friday's, there were several times that guests would ask me to tell parents that their child was disturbing everyone else, but this, of course, was never well-received. So many times, the parents would get defensive, and I eventually learned that it was a no-win situation for me to say anything other than offer to help by bringing crackers or refilling drinks for the children. Based on this experience, I can assure you that I will never get defensive, but at this point, I am probably overly worried about how much noise the baby is making and whether it is affecting others within earshot.

We went to Red Robin, and fortunately, we were able to sit outside. There was only one other table out there when we sat down, so when Maddie woke up and starting crying, at least the entire restaurant wasn't affected. She only cried for a little bit, and once we fed her, she was so good for the rest of the time that we were there. I wound up carrying her out of the restaurant in my arms, and two women stopped me to ask her age and tell me how precious she is.

Maddie was great while we were clothes shopping. Once we arrived at the grocery store, she woke up and was hungry again. I fed her a little bit in the car, and then while we were inside, Hank pushed the cart and held the bottle for her to eat while she was in her car seat. When she needed to be burped, he would hold her and walk around, and I swear there was a chorus of "Aww! Aww! Aww!" coming from every direction as we went through the store. Again, everyone asked all kinds of questions and told us how adorable she is.

I have to admit, it's kind of fun getting the attention from so many people when we go out in public, and I know that Hank was especially loving it. He is such a very large man that the image of him carrying such a tiny baby is really a sight to behold, and some people are really in awe of him. Of course, Hank doesn't mind being the center of attention (or at least sharing it with the baby) and he sang and talked to Maddie all the way through the store, making the entire scene even cuter.