Bones to pick

Yesterday was a weird day.  Just a weird day.

We went to a story time at the library this week.  I was really excited to give it a whirl; we weren’t allowed to go to anything like that over the winter during sick season, and then Piper was sick, so it’s really the first time we’ve gotten the chance.  I’ve wanted to do it for a long time; I thought Piper would like to do something a little different, and I was excited to meet some other moms, too. 

We got there and there were only three other kids in the room.  A few others showed up after we started, but it was pretty lackluster.  The “teacher”/library led everyone, very somberly, in a few songs, read a story, sang another couple songs, another story, a few songs, made everyone walk in a circle (which she made a point to tell me that I could walk Piper around since she couldn’t walk herself- gee, ya think???), and then pulled out a box of books for the kids to read for about 5 minutes.  We were done and out of the room within 25 minutes total. 

I was kind of let down.  Piper gets read to all the time, and sung to (much to her disdain, I’m sure) a lot.  It was horribly segmented and choppy, not very engaging, terribly rushed, and just plain awkward.  But the part that go me was that the librarian made sure to bring me information about the importance of early literacy in infants, and told me why I should care.  I wonder if she could tell that Piper had Ds and “knew” that I wasn’t doing appropriate activities with her because of it.  She also mentioned during the class all of these reasons why it’s important to encourage kids to cross midline, looking at me the whole time…

Here’s my beef- I know that I look younger than I am.  I always have.  It’s a trait that I get from both parents, really, and one that’s a curse for the first part of your life and a blessing the second part.

But since having Piper, my frustrations are on a whole. new. level.

I have a whole diatribe that was going to delve into, but I’ll shorten it to this:  I wish I had a tattoo on my forehead that says “I’m not 16.  I was married for 7 years when Piper was born.  I have my bachelor’s degree for crying out loud.  And yes, I know what it means to have a child with Down syndrome.”  And frankly, I may actually pursue the option of the permanent placement on the center of my being if I didn’t need so many words.  No one would be able to read it anyway.  And besides, I have bangs.  And I’m not willing to look goofy for the sake of my sarcastic response to frustrating people.

So I think we’ll look into some other story times around for this summer.  I still think it would be fun, but I don’t need unsolicited advice on my parenting styles.

Anyway, after we left there, I was going to go to Burlington Coat Factory (which I’ve never liked going to, but they do have good prices on bottles, cups, spoons, that sort of thing, for babies) to find some new straw cups (I actually found some that work for Piper!!!).  Piper was ticked off, and wouldn’t calm down.  I think she had passed the point of no return for no sleep, and she was DONE.  So, after a little bit of not going to sleep, I thought I would nurse her and see if she’d fall asleep then.

So we walk over to the dressing rooms, which are dead-center in the middle of the store, and really quite open, so I could feed her.  I asked for a room, and the attendant lady told me that I could use the bathroom instead.

Really???

Where exactly do you expect me to do that?  Sitting on a toilet???  I was appalled.  I sat dumbfounded for a minute and told her that, no, I wouldn’t be doing that.  She then pointed at a little bench, outside the fitting rooms, that she’d “let” me use instead.  I didn’t have a hider, and Piper was screaming by this point, so I sat.  And fed the baby.  In the middle of the (thankfully relatively quiet) store.

If I had thought about it before I let Piper start, I would have gone and picked up a pair of 6XL men’s pants and ask to try them on. 

The whole exchange still just gets me.  I couldn’t believe that they wouldn’t let us use one of their empty and unused rooms.  Whatever.

Piper finally fell asleep, and I actually managed to get the whole way home before she woke up again.  At least the grumps were gone by that time.

I assure you, I was not smiling this big when we got home.

…and how can you not smile at that???