Saturday Night's Alright for Eating
We’re back from another exciting trip to see the grandparents. I learn so much about Abbie when we spend time away from home and bend her routine far out of shape. Not that I let it bend too far; I’m terrified that she’ll suddenly become horribly confused and refuse to nap because she ate portable applesauce for breakfast instead of her not-so-portable standard bananas.
Sometimes I have to be flexible with her routine and pray that it doesn’t result in excessive crankiness. Her recent Saturday night is a good example of breaking the routine. At home, she starts eating precisely at 5:45pm as I spoon feed her a chicken and vegetable mix, I eat my supper while she finishes feeding herself, and then I clean the kitchen while she whines with boredom at my feet. Finally I spend the rest of the night intending to read to her the entire time, but instead take frequent breaks to finish random chores around the house while she whines under my feet until I return to reading to her. She could become wildly unpredictable without her important evening whining cues telling her bedtime is drawing nigh.
The Saturday night plan was to eat out with my parents after helping them around the house, and return to Ellie’s grandmother in time to pick up Abbie’s bedtime routine. We arrived at my parents at 4:45 to help them set up their new guest bed, which was actually the same bed that had spent the previous 15 months in our bedroom and the last three weeks in our living room. We would have arrived sooner, but the roads around Sioux City are a little torn up. When I say “a little” I mean “a lot;” I’m using “a little” in the same way that I might say the Pacific Ocean is a little wet, or the Bears are a little sucky.
Instead of Ellie and my mother sitting on the couch watching TV while my dad and I lifted bulky bed components, they made a trip to the store for Vital Supplies. This was intended to save time for supper by completing two necessary tasks simultaneously, but instead it saved time for me to watch football while I waited for their return around 5:45.* I whisked everyone out the door as soon as they returned, fearful that Abbie would be panicking with hunger at any second in spite of the green beans I gave her while watching football.
We drove to the mall to eat. Since we were already late, I wanted to arrive as quickly as possible. I fought traffic to the mall’s rear entrance as that was the closest entrance to the target restaurant, saw that road was closed due to construction, fought traffic back to the main entrance, drove around the mall again, passed the road where we turned around in the first place, and parked cursing the additional ten minutes we lost. We were already 30 minutes late feeding Abbie, and the whining was bound to begin shortly.
Inside we found throngs of teenagers. No surprise as this was a mall on a Saturday night, but these teens were dressed in shiny formal wear, leading me to believe they were out for a pre-homecoming dance meal and would be battling us for precious restaurant space. Instead of everyone waiting for a table, I waited at the restaurant while everyone else picked up a Vital Supply from a nearby store. This was also intended to save time for our departure by multi-tasking, but instead it saved time for me to watch football while I waited ten minutes at our table for their return.**
We finally began eating around 7:00, and I feared the worst. Supper though proceeded fairly uneventfully except for Abbie consuming an alarming amount of food. We ordered her a kid’s size pasta, which she ate half of, an amount that easily surpassed the total that I ordinarily feed her for supper. Then everybody kept slipping her parts of their meals to see if she’d eat it, which she always did. Fearing she would burst, Abbie and I walked from the restaurant and everyone’s leftovers to walk off supper while they waited for the check. This is an effective technique for avoiding a check by the way, not that I would ever stoop to such a low. Ellie had her credit card anyway.
We finally returned to our overnight stop, Ellie’s grandmother’s house, at 8:30. This was a full 30 minutes past the beginning of her normal bedtime routine. I rushed everything in an attempt to slide back onto her normal schedule to the minute,*** but just couldn’t make it. I ended up putting her to bed at 9:30, 15 minutes later than normal.
In spite of her schedule being thrown out of whack, bedtime went smoothly. She was angrier than normal when I put her to sleep, but she still drifted off without too much extra complaint. She slept well too, except for waking up in the middle of the night crying, an unusual event for her. This could have any number of causes. She may have been upset from her uncharacteristic schedule. She may have been disturbed by waking in an unfamiliar place. She may have been distraught by the atypical applesauce she had for breakfast. Regardless, we’re home and everything turned out fine.
* Iowa discovered that maybe they can salvage this season after all.
** Nebraska discovered that Texas Tech is better than Iowa State.
*** 8:55 – Change into pajamas. 8:59 – Brush teeth. 9:01 – Rinse and spit.
Sometimes I have to be flexible with her routine and pray that it doesn’t result in excessive crankiness. Her recent Saturday night is a good example of breaking the routine. At home, she starts eating precisely at 5:45pm as I spoon feed her a chicken and vegetable mix, I eat my supper while she finishes feeding herself, and then I clean the kitchen while she whines with boredom at my feet. Finally I spend the rest of the night intending to read to her the entire time, but instead take frequent breaks to finish random chores around the house while she whines under my feet until I return to reading to her. She could become wildly unpredictable without her important evening whining cues telling her bedtime is drawing nigh.
The Saturday night plan was to eat out with my parents after helping them around the house, and return to Ellie’s grandmother in time to pick up Abbie’s bedtime routine. We arrived at my parents at 4:45 to help them set up their new guest bed, which was actually the same bed that had spent the previous 15 months in our bedroom and the last three weeks in our living room. We would have arrived sooner, but the roads around Sioux City are a little torn up. When I say “a little” I mean “a lot;” I’m using “a little” in the same way that I might say the Pacific Ocean is a little wet, or the Bears are a little sucky.
Instead of Ellie and my mother sitting on the couch watching TV while my dad and I lifted bulky bed components, they made a trip to the store for Vital Supplies. This was intended to save time for supper by completing two necessary tasks simultaneously, but instead it saved time for me to watch football while I waited for their return around 5:45.* I whisked everyone out the door as soon as they returned, fearful that Abbie would be panicking with hunger at any second in spite of the green beans I gave her while watching football.
We drove to the mall to eat. Since we were already late, I wanted to arrive as quickly as possible. I fought traffic to the mall’s rear entrance as that was the closest entrance to the target restaurant, saw that road was closed due to construction, fought traffic back to the main entrance, drove around the mall again, passed the road where we turned around in the first place, and parked cursing the additional ten minutes we lost. We were already 30 minutes late feeding Abbie, and the whining was bound to begin shortly.
Inside we found throngs of teenagers. No surprise as this was a mall on a Saturday night, but these teens were dressed in shiny formal wear, leading me to believe they were out for a pre-homecoming dance meal and would be battling us for precious restaurant space. Instead of everyone waiting for a table, I waited at the restaurant while everyone else picked up a Vital Supply from a nearby store. This was also intended to save time for our departure by multi-tasking, but instead it saved time for me to watch football while I waited ten minutes at our table for their return.**
We finally began eating around 7:00, and I feared the worst. Supper though proceeded fairly uneventfully except for Abbie consuming an alarming amount of food. We ordered her a kid’s size pasta, which she ate half of, an amount that easily surpassed the total that I ordinarily feed her for supper. Then everybody kept slipping her parts of their meals to see if she’d eat it, which she always did. Fearing she would burst, Abbie and I walked from the restaurant and everyone’s leftovers to walk off supper while they waited for the check. This is an effective technique for avoiding a check by the way, not that I would ever stoop to such a low. Ellie had her credit card anyway.
We finally returned to our overnight stop, Ellie’s grandmother’s house, at 8:30. This was a full 30 minutes past the beginning of her normal bedtime routine. I rushed everything in an attempt to slide back onto her normal schedule to the minute,*** but just couldn’t make it. I ended up putting her to bed at 9:30, 15 minutes later than normal.
In spite of her schedule being thrown out of whack, bedtime went smoothly. She was angrier than normal when I put her to sleep, but she still drifted off without too much extra complaint. She slept well too, except for waking up in the middle of the night crying, an unusual event for her. This could have any number of causes. She may have been upset from her uncharacteristic schedule. She may have been disturbed by waking in an unfamiliar place. She may have been distraught by the atypical applesauce she had for breakfast. Regardless, we’re home and everything turned out fine.
* Iowa discovered that maybe they can salvage this season after all.
** Nebraska discovered that Texas Tech is better than Iowa State.
*** 8:55 – Change into pajamas. 8:59 – Brush teeth. 9:01 – Rinse and spit.
posted by Matt at
10:05 PM
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