story time with Miss Elaine

Elaine (of wannabe hippie) mentioned she was hosting story time for the first time today at Java Mama Cafe. I'd never been, but I thought it worth a trip to check out.

Unfortunately, we had a hard time finding it and arrived late, missing most of story time. Eliza was overwhelmed by the new situation and froze up, but the other kids were really into it. I wish I could summon up as much enthusiasm as Elaine having read The Napping House a zillion times.


Afterward, Eliza had fun playing in the supervised play area for awhile until she announced she was hungry. Outside food is not allowed, and the only thing on the menu we could eat was a PBJ (I'm reluctant to pay for something I can slap together in 5 seconds at home).

Eliza happily agreed to go to a restaurant, so we stopped off at Sipz Fusion Cafe on the way home where we shared orange "chicken" and pad Thai. I ordered a Thai iced tea because I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't drink this peach-jasmine drink I'd ordered at Java Mama because I thought it was an iced tea, and it turned out to be a milk shake. (I told the guy at the counter to give it away since I didn't want it to go to waste.) He offered to remake it with water but said he didn't know if the peach mix had dairy. I thought to myself, "you could look on the label, or show it to me," but I'm not a complainer and don't like to trouble people, so I reassured him it was alright - after all, the fault was mine for assuming.

Eliza was well-behaved at lunch and eagerly devoured the pad Thai. Good restaurant behavior is one of Eliza's few easy traits (although it wasn't always that way). I dare say, she behaves a good deal better in restaurants than she does at home, being a diva of a food critic, flinging what she doesn't like - a habit that infuriates her father more than any other.

Afterward, I asked Eliza if she'd like to go pick up our fruit order or if she'd like to go home, knowing what her answer would be, but I asked because I figured we'd be out of there in under an hour and only live a couple miles away. However, I didn't count on getting horribly lost in my own neighborhood. And here I was just talking with Jenny (of wildwood cottage) yesterday about my geeky love of geography - shame on me. After driving around for a half hour, hoping I'd happen upon the street, I told Eliza I was sorry but that we had to go home because I was lost. "No, no, no, no, no!!! I need to pick up the fwuit!!!" she yelled and started bawling. It figures that the one page our local Thomas Guide is missing is the one I needed. Then I had another thought. I pulled over to check whether my cell phone had a mapping program on its web function. I had to agree to be charged $4, which may have been worth it to avoid a meltdown.

I didn't have any luck getting Eliza out of Lorien's (of wilson silverleaf) after an hour, then two hours. I became more anxious as the afternoon wore on, knowing we were all in for a heap of trouble and tantrums if Eliza didn't get her nap. Fortunately, she did go down for a nap just after 4, which is highly unusual, so I thank my lucky stars.

Someone just woke up and is playing the obnoxious demo track on the piano keyboard next to me. I hope she'll want to go downstairs so we can listen to decent music instead. :)

(My apologies for the photo quality - that's the best I can do with a half-broken camera and dim lighting.)