This ACTUALLY Happened

A few weeks ago we were eating an early dinner in a McDonald's because we had to meet halfway between my job and Jeremy's job to switch off Josephine so Jeremy could take her home and I could leave to teach my night class (confused yet?). 


We were having a lovely little quiet dinner and conversation, when an older woman got into our little "bubble" and started talking to Josephine. No big deal, really. Strangers, especially women of "grandma-age," LOVE talking to Josephine. I can't blame them. 


This particular woman cooed over her cuteness and her excellent behavior, and then, and then ... well, she made a strange offer.


Woman: Oh, you look like you want some of my ice cream cone! Do you want some of my ice cream cone? You can have my ice cream cone sweet little girl!!! Yes, you can!!! Here, have some!


And yes, then she started trying to hand her ice cream cone THAT SHE HAD BEEN LICKING to my child.


Me: Oh, no, but thank you.


Woman: What? I'm serious! She can have my ice cream! She's looking right at it! She wants it! It's okay! She can have it!


Me: No, no, she doesn't need any ice cream, but thank you so much for the offer.


Woman: How about a spoon? A spoon! BERT! (calling to husband at counter waiting for food) Get a spoon so I can give this baby my ice cream!


Me: No, seriously, she still has dinner to eat.


Woman: A bowl? A bowl! I'll spoon the ice cream into the bowl and she can eat it when she's done with her dinner!

Me: No, I think she's lucky enough to get a few nuggets today. She doesn't need sugar on top of it. But that is so nice of you to offer. *Starting to get very nervous at her persistence.*


Woman: Well, you're just mean, aren't you!?!? (To Josephine) Your mommy's MEAN, isn't she? She won't even let you have this delicious, free, ice cream that you REALLY REALLY want! It's not even that bad for you, is it? NO, IT'S NOT! And IT'S DELICIOUS!


Me: *nervous laughter, averting eyes.*


Woman: You poor little sweet girl! All you want in the world is this ice cream, and she DOESN'T EVEN CARE! You sweet, sweet little girl.


At this point, I just went into full ignoring mode. I couldn't do anymore fake thank yous and laughing at myself. I just couldn't. Eventually Bert got their food, and she left with him, mumbling about the outrageousness of some mothers. 


Yes, if being a mother who doesn't let her child share saliva with a total stranger in McDonald's makes me some mother, SIGN ME UP.


Also, what was Jeremy doing this whole time? Eating his food and refusing to make eye contact. What if we had both ignored her and she just started feeding Josephine the ice cream, HUH, Jeremy? What then?

Outtakes

I seriously thank my lucky stars every day that my child was born in a time when digital cameras are possible. If you've ever been to this blog before, you know how many BEAUTIFUL pictures we have of our BEAUTIFUL daughter, but there are quite a few ... not-so-awesome pictures as well.

Whether it's due to a lame camera, the lame person trying to use the camera (i.e., me), capturing an awkward moment, or having a squirmy child, we have hundreds of outtakes. Here are just a few of my favorites that prove it is worth my while to take multiple pictures every single time, since I will have a few of these to weed out.

(Confession: Some of these make me smile more than the "good" ones.)

If you already have a great outtakes post or do one in the future, leave a link in the comments! This will be the place where we all come for a laugh! :)

Happy Days

We are having some ... issues ... over here. The kind you don't talk about on the Internet. BUT, our marriage is tip-top, Josie and Baby X are both healthy, and we have a roof over our heads, so we have the most important stuff covered, right? Right.

So, I am focusing on the things that are making me happy lately. Here are the things I have been loving the most this past week:

1. This WEATHER! Nothing gets Jeremy into a tizzy about how the world is ending and DON'T YOU EVEN CARE, VERONICA? faster than 70s and 80s for weeks straight in March, but DANG I've been in heaven the past few weeks. It looks like it's gone again for the time being, but it was magnificent.  

2. The abundance of park time we have had (thanks to said sign-of-the-apocalypse weather) and how much Josephine LOVES it!

3.  We also spent a lot of time hanging in the backyard, where we played with toys and rode bikes and found treasures like rocks and bugs and nuts (and one berry ... that we won't speak of).

4. And if it's warm enough to hang out in the backyard, it's warm enough for the "three-season room" aka, our porch someone put walls around (totally strange). I love sitting out there in the morning while Josephine plays in her wagon or crawls on my lap or pretends she's a cat. 

watching the storm last night that sent us back to normal weather :(

5. Painting Josie's toenails for the first time with Piggy Paint!

I have always been afraid to paint her nails because I was positive she would eat it off, but my neighbor said this stuff was safe, and she's an honorary healthy hippie, so we borrowed it. Josephine just stared in awe and couldn't stop saying "wow!" in a tiny little whisper, then she couldn't stop touching them when they were dry.

6. Finally catching up on two months of filling out Josephine's second-year calendar. 

Some months I write in it every night, other months I make scattered lists in notebooks then go to my Twitter and facebook to fill in the blanks and make sure I got all the dates right. Two months was the longest time I let it go, and my stomach seriously starting eating itself EVERY NIGHT when I realized with a jolt that I had let another day pass without catching up, so I am SO GLAD it is done. Now, every day is accounted for, and many adorable moments and important milestones have been carefully detailed ... IF she can read my tiny cramped handwriting in those little boxes when she's older.

And there you go: focusing on the good. And now it's time to put the Bean down for her nap -- another good thing!