we had quite the morning this morning! emmy was up at 6:30 instead of her usual 8am, although she may have slept a little off and on between then because i nursed her a bit and then put her back in the crib. then at 10 we met up with some of our friends at great lakes crossing, a local outlet mall. we started in the play area, but emmy's been so shy lately that she didn't want to play, just cling to mommy. after about 30 minutes, the moms split up to walk around the mall and shop a bit. of course, most of us have toddlers who are in the stage where they hate being strapped in for any length of time, so shopping didn't last long. we went back to play some more until we were supposed to regroup for lunch at rainforest cafe at 11:30. i had originally thought i wouldn't do lunch there, because i thought they'd eat around noon and it's a 30 minute drive home and i didn't want to risk emmy falling asleep in the car on the way home, but since they were eating on the early side, i thought it would probably be ok. as i strapped emmy back into her stroller to walk to the restaurant, she started signing "milk." i had brought a cup for her, but it was really supposed to be for the drive home, to help her stay awake, so i tried in the meantime to ply her with cheerios. meltdown. so i got the milk out, and as i did, i noticed the little cup-sized cooler i keep it in was dripping a little. lately i've been having trouble with sippy cup lids not going on right and leaking a little, but this time it was EVERYWHERE, all over the basket of my stroller where i had stored it, and some on the bags i had in there too. out of about 6 oz, only 1 or so was left, but thankfully what was there was enough to satisfy em for the time being.
so half of our group gets to rainforest cafe, and there's no sign of everyone else, so we decide because of the cranky, impatient toddlers (who turn their mommies into cranky, impatient mommies) that we'll get a table together but just go ahead and order and get started without them. i tell the waitress this so she knows not to wait for them. she comes shortly after we get settled, and no one's ready to order, so she says she'll come back in a minute. "a minute" becomes several, and at some point the rest of the moms show up, so when she does come back, she prioritizes taking their drink orders, and bringing all their drinks, and then FINALLY comes to take everyone's orders, not just those of us who were there first. so then apparently there's the restaurant mentality of making sure everyone's food comes out at the same time, and what ends up happening is those of us who got there first wait OVER AN HOUR before food is even served. in my opinion, that's a long wait at an almost empty restaurant even for just an adult, but when you factor in 7 toddlers who hate to sit still and who are dangerously close to naptime, every minute counts! we all literally had to ask for our checks as soon as the food came because of the kids' moods! and by the time we did get our food, mine was even cold. rainforest cafe is grossly overpriced anyway, but between the nasty food and the poor service, it hurt a lot to hand over my credit card. i should have spoken to a manager while i was there, but i just needed to get emmy home at that point. thankfully she didn't fall asleep on the way home and is currently napping peacefully in her crib, so at least today isn't a total waste...but next time i will go with my gut when deciding if i should do something like lunch with the ladies!!
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