The French Bakery

I like to keep it real around here, so I really did have to post about this family trip. After swimming one day, the kids and I visited a French bakery that's near our Trader Joe's. I thought the day would be perfect! Swimming classes, sitting in the bright sun eating croissants, short grocery trip to Trader Joe's (which is always fun), and maybe a thrift store or two. As usual, these seemingly "perfect" trips in my head turn out to be not so "perfect".

Do not ask me what was wrong with the Grumpy Pants. He might have been tired or thirsty or accidentally ordered the wrong pastry... who knows. All I know is he was not fun to be around.

There were glimpses of hope.

I'm still having him wear a hat most days we're out in the sun. I don't know why though, because the evidence of his spill on the stairs has healed and has certainly scarred. Oh well. This little hat gets him a lot of compliments, so we continue to wear hats out.

So I have a great time with the kids... and I have some rather uncomfortable moments (like Alynna pointing to a larger woman and shouting, "Mommy! That lady is going to have a baby!" or Nathan walking out of the house and shouting, "Mommy! Those are the boys I'm not allowed to play with!") and I have moments that I think, "That sounds like so much fun!" and I end up cringing and wondering how fast I can leave. The bakery was one of those times. We broke the silence of the little bakery and the peace of customers eating their pastries and drinking coffee out in the sun. We didn't get any dirty looks, but as Simon sat and cried and cried and cried we did get a few looks.

Well, nothing was right, and after a few more looks from the strangers around us I finally packed us up as quickly as possible. Simon was screaming, my heart was racing as my ideas of the "perfect" day was drowned in all the unwanted noise, children were happily playing tag around me as I asked them to stay close, I dropped a pastry to-go box in my rush to leave as soon as possible, it rolled under a car, and I was left on my knees in the parking lot as I tried to fish it out from under the engine as Simon continued crying and children ran away from their mother.

Keepin' it real, people.