fried chicken & firetrucks

friday is library day(not every friday). its a day filled with puppet shows & stories & playing with friends. friday is one of mommy's favorite days because it means i get to play with my friends too!

this particular friday was filled with firemen instead of puppets. no my monster didn't burn down the library. it has been safety month & this week they got to meet a couple of firemen, see the truck & learn about fire safety. the day started out easy enough, coloring a smoke detector &  talking about the sound they make. when we are done with out pitiful looking smoke alarms we move on to the other room where we get to meet the firemen. i predict as soon as i see the suit in the corner that my child is going to freak out major when she sees him suited up. they discuss the smoke alarms a lil more & talk about crawling under the smoke(which was demonstrated by the rookie of course). oh & by the way " what does it mean when the smoke alarm goes off?" any guesses "SUPPER IS DONE!".  as the young man begins to put his ominous looking fire suit on my sweet angel turns & looks at me with a look of sheer terror on her pale face. I WAS RIGHT!!! she had to get up from her seat & come to where i was so she could be held  so that she would not start screaming. i had to keep reminding her that it was still the fireman under all stuff.  finally he removes his garb & she is fine, very disinterested looking but fine.they venture outside to take a tour of the fire truck. i thought my kid would be excited since she LOVES firetrucks boy was i wrong. she still has this genuine look of complete detachment form the activity. we take pictures & she is half smiling in just one photograph. they are just about to get to climb all over the huge truck like little monkeys when the firemen get a call & have to hurry & leave.  they pull out of the library parking lot with lights flashing, sirens roaring & my kid still looking bored beyond belief. the truck gets out of sight & you can hear the horn bellow loudly as they get into traffic & my child perks up smiling & says "mommy, the firetruck i hear it!!". yup after it leaves she gets excited!

off to lunch we go. we head off to our usual spot. we congregate at the BK since it is the ONLY one with a play area now. we take over  the restaurant causing chaos & disorder. our group is so vast that we take up 3 tables, 2 for kiddos & 1 for adults (what no we are not outnumbered) smack in the middle of the room of course.  we have our lunch & chat while the monsters play & make small attempts at eating their food. i at my nearly burnt chicken fries with no complaints, that happens when you are enjoying the conversation  as much as i was. it also happens that when you are really enjoying the conversation you tend to not notice what your children are up to, as we quickly learned. this snooty much older woman walks up to us & begins to reprimand us telling us we need to get our kids because they are being far to rowdy(she was very rude about it too. apparently this sensitive little girl (her grand daughter) got in the middle of where the boys were playing & jumping around & she started to cry. i had to walk out of the room to preserve what little shred of decency i had left because i was trying so hard to not say what i wanted to say to her. what i wanted to say was something like this " lady its not our fault if she is so caught in your apron strings she doesn't know how to play with other children." or maybe "its not our problem is she is a crybaby now is it"  but instead of being snarky i removed myself from the situation :) 

later at the same location my tiny hellion  is playing with the straw from her drink. this ends badly of course. she somehow manages to poke another child in the eye with her straw. the poor girl is crying & mine seems clueless as to what has happened. i end up putting her in an extended time-out. during her time-out she gets up several times trying to play & i have to put her back on her seat. finally the crying stops & i let her get up. by now the i pad has been brought out & they are playing games on it. shortly , all of the smaller kiddos are having melt downs & its time to leave.

next stop wal-mart. we unload & make our way inside kiddos in hand. people staring as we load them into one of those giant carts with the extra seats. we meet up with the rest of the gang & begin our collective jaunt around the super store. it was kind of like when the house fell on the witch & dorthy & toto came out, yeah that same kind of whisper & shock as we strolled the isles with our sweet babies. ok so let me skip to the juicy bit. we are standing in front of the book section & the kids have each found a title that peaks their interest & have began to read. my lil dear is sitting in the floor, quietly, admiring a book with flaps & hidden pictures along with her best friend(the one with the eye she nearly poked out). they are being sweet angel babies  & people are making snotty comments from afar!! can you believe it?? so i chirp up & say " what, of course my kid has to read the books when we cone to wal-mart. we ain't got no books at home." which is a bald face lie since we have a classroom stuffed with all types of books. my kid just loves to read & i love to make rude comments, we are a match made in heaven.

all in all we had a marvelous day with everyone & i wish we could do it more often. oh how life gets in the way of fun.