Day 231: So, just who is the baby here?

I have to vent. A couple of nights ago Fernando and I took Maddie and went out for dinner. This is a big deal for us. She's not been the easiest girl to take out up until now, so we've had to pretty much avoid restaurants and other places with no quick escape route. But we did a dry run at a sushi place for lunch and it went amazingly well, she just sat on the table and played and ate her cheerios and looked adorable. So we thought, why not try dinner? We purposely picked a family pizza restaurant, the kind of place that serves root beer by the pitcher and hands out crayons and colouring books with your menus. This is a far cry from our pre-baby venues, those places where waitresses have small skirts and big cleavage and the menu for drinks is 4 times the size of the one for food. Anyways, we got there, ordered our food, had a drink. Maddie was in a fantastic mood. So fantastic, actually, that she was letting out happy little screeches, as babies tend to do when they're excited. I thought it was cute. Others, apparently, did not. Now, I understand that she was being a bit loud. But I'll stress again that it's a family restaurant - they bring lollipops with the bill, for god's sake. So I was shocked when a table near us started to complain. Not politely, directly to us. Not even discretely, to the waitress. Instead this group of sad and pathetic middle-aged men start yelling in our general direction, things like, "Put a cork in her", "Shut it up" and "Where are this kid's parents?" I was mortified and so angry. She's 7 months old, it's not like I can just tell her to use her inside voice. And to be honest, I wouldn't even want to. If she were screaming and howling I would have taken her outside to calm down, but I'm not going to try to shut her up when she's happy! We were trying to just ignore it, until I saw another couple shaking their heads in disapproval at us. At which time I wimped out and we packed her up and left. I know I should've stuck it out, but why waste our one night out being embarassed and stressed out?

The whole experience left me so mad. Argh! How do people get to be such jerks? Trust me, I have a far stronger word in mind but I am self-censoring for public consumption. Am I not allowed out of the house now that I have a baby? Am I relegated to the ballroom at McDonalds? Well, forget it. Maddie goes where I go, and I'm going out. The rest of the world will have to deal with it. I know, tough talk from the girl who ran away with her tail between her legs! But if it happens again I resolve to stay and stick it out. Or at least to hide a dirty diaper under their back seat on my way out!