Today I called Chris, inquiring on whether he and Emily and Ella would want to join us at the Midtown Market tonight. It is Friday, and that makes it family night, which the girls enjoyed last week. He declined, saying he had to work tonight. He has no idea the bullet he dodged.
Let me first state that the first 45 minutes there were blissfully conflict free, which is something I should focus on. They have a kinda cute little play area at the southwest corner of the building that we descended upon. The slide was slid upon. The little car ramp was ridden. Good stuff. And I should mention that Abby kissed her first boy at this point, a cute and personable and highly annoying little 3 year old kid that was hamming it up with her. He got really close, smiling and making googly eyes at her, and she leaned forward and gave him a kiss. So, that's out of the way now.
As 6 o' clock came and went, we decided to go find someplace to sit the girls down and cram some food in their hands. This never did end up happening. Lily toddled down 20 feet of hallway before opting to unleash anarchy upon the world. I have to give credit to Jen, who did her best to rectify the situation, but it ended, inevitably, with Lily writhing around the concrete floor in front of the 10th St. entrance, screeching at nothing at all. A couple shopowners came over in a genuinely honest try at distracting or appeasing her. These mostly failed, until a lovely human being named Tenzin came from the Tibet store to both a) distract her, and b) give her some fruit snack. If you find yourself at the Tibet store across from Holy Land Deli, please buy some prayer flags because that is just good karma; she was very nice to us.
We passed a few minutes of unsteady truce in her store. I'm astute enough, as is Jen, to know when a good mood is just a passing fancy, and sure enough, when we left the store she came unglued once more. At this point, Abby started to disintegrate as well. At the nadir of this particular trip I had both kids, Lily trying to flop out of my arms and Abby straining against the stroller straps, in front of Holy Land deli, both of them wailing, strangers looking on, me blocking traffic, while they ensured every bit of fruit snack that Tenzin had given us was strewn upon the market floor.
With both kids in the car, they were totally fine. Back home, dinner was peaceful, changing was a bore, and bedtime was a snap. I think there are just some nights when kids should not be out.
The worst part: we had to pay $2 for parking since we never got our parking validated. Curse it all!
Tomorrow will be better. No, wait, Jen is busy with a NSHMBA conference, so I have the kids solo. Crap. Sunday will be better!
Day two hundred and forty five.
Old photos of the kids.
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