We know several people who have kids about the same age as our girls. One thing we’ve noticed is that we’re the last ones to take our kids out to a restaurant. Our worry is what would happen if the four of us are at a restaurant together and both girls have a meltdown. Would we put money on the table and all pick up and leave? Would one of us take both girls outside while the other continues eating alone? We weren’t sure how it would work, and we didn’t even know if we would enjoy it.
That’s not to say that we haven’t been out with the girls. We’ve taken walks at the park and at the beach. And we’ve taken them to Babies R Us. That has been the extent of our adventures outside of our house for the past three and half months. We decided to add one more place to our list on Saturday. We took them to the farmer’s market.
The local farmer’s market is in the parking lot of the park that we go to. It runs on Saturday morning every week, and you can find good cheap produce as well as stalls with prepared foods. The thing we noticed about this farmer’s market, though, is that a number of people seem to take their kids there. There are strollers all over.
We showed up around 10:30 with the girls in their double Snap n Go and started making our way around. The strange thing is that within the span of about ten minutes, we noticed at least four sets of twins. There were way more twins than you would expect as a normal percentage of the kids there. No idea why. Miranda slept through our trip to the farmer’s market. Eleanor looked around quietly. We bought some eggplant, zucchini and bagels.
By now, it was time for lunch. The girls were behaving so well and things had gone so smoothly that we decided to take them out to lunch with us as well. Prior to the girls’ births, we had been going to a ramen shop at least two weekends out of every month. Mama Ramen is a small shop with a dozen tables, a high turnover and a friendly waitstaff. The moment we walked in, the two girls who work there on weekends bounced right over to take a look at Miranda and Eleanor and say hi. They knew that it had been a long time since we had been there.
We sat down on opposite sides of a table for four. Eleanor was next to me. Miranda was next to Agnes. We ordered our usual spicy shoyu ramen for Agnes and the spicy shoyu ramen lunch special for me. The spicy shoyu ramen is their basic shoyu ramen (ramen noodles, soy sauce flavored soup, pork, bamboo shoots, a piece of seaweed and some scallions) with a dollop of some chili paste. The lunch special adds three gyoza and a bowl of very tasty fried rice. While we waited we constantly monitored the girls. This shop often plays Japanese punk music, but today it was Hip Hop. I think the music was keeping both of the girls awake. Miranda had a frown on her face, but she was quiet. Eleanor looked a bit anxious. She was clutching the edge of the carseat with one hand and sucking on the other. She wasn’t making a lot of noise, but something around her eyes made her look uncomfortable. Fortunately, she didn’t melt down and we were able to eat our meals without incident. We just needed to keep an eye on both of them, and give them pacifiers when they needed them. Everything went more smoothly than I would have thought. Yay!
On Sunday, we decided to go out again. We took them out to Redondo Beach, the site of our ill-fated first attempt to bring our girls to the beach. I went for a run while Agnes walked the girls. We each went in the same direction for twenty minutes, and then turned around to return to the start. We arrived back at the beginning at the same time. Miranda slept pretty much the whole time. Eleanor was awake, but quiet and calm.
On the way back from the beach, we decided to go to the grocery store. We stopped there and picked up our usual groceries. One thing we noticed at the grocery store with the girls that we had not noticed before is that the grocery store is very bright. It’s also cold in many areas (the produce section, the dairy section, the meat and poultry section, etc.). Miranda continued to sleep, but Eleanor was starting to look overstimulated. She was sucking on one hand, her other hand was grasping at her ear and she had that anxious look in her eyes again. We quickly finished up and went home with no real problems.
All in all, we had a pretty busy weekend. The farmer’s market was new, the ramen shop was new and the grocery store was new. The girls did great — we’re really pleased. Hopefully this is the start of many future weekend outings. Our only concern is that with all the sleeping Miranda does on these outings, she won’t believe we ever took her out.
Hooray… Congratulations on your outings. That was the one thing that Rick was deathly afraid of when Lucas was small. But you know what? It’s easier to take a 3mo old to a restaurant than a toddler. I took Lucas out all the time (within his schedule and sometimes stretching his schedule). I reasoned that he needs to learn to adjust to and sleep in different environment anyways. I recently took my girlfriend and her baby (who is born 2 days after yours) out to a restaurant to have lunch. It’s her first time out with the baby b/c she was afraid that she’ll wake up, cry, fuss, etc. I had her feed/change her baby before we left. She said she’ll wake up in 30min and cry and etc. I reassured her that no such thing will happen. The baby slept like a baby for the next 3h while we talked and enjoyed our meal without a peep. So go out and enjoy yourself before your girls can climb our of the chairs, throw food around and yell at the top of their lungs. By the way, get the Denim Stripe Secure-Me-Seat for going out (when they can start sitting in the high chair). It straps them in so well that they can’t move in the seat nor the shopping cart. Some people prefer the floppy (but way more expensive). I haven’t tried it yet but looks cumbersome.
My experience with Sarah and Maya is that it is easier to take them out when they are little (like the twins are now). They are more likely to sleep in their car seats or sit still and look around. Maya is 5 1/2 mos now and she will sit in the car seat for a while, then she has to be held. So we either eat very fast or eat foods that can be eaten one handed. Then, it gets a little better later when they can feed themselves. Then, you can put them in the high chair and give them cheerios or some other foods to occupy them. That’s around 1 or so? So, eat out now while it is still relatively easy!
Oh yeah, sometimes when we visit family run restaurants, the ladies there would offer to hold Maya while we eat. (For some reason, they tend to be Japanese restaurants.) Take advantage of it if you can!
Yes, I agree with the above comments! Also, once you have kids you feel a lot more sympathetic towards parents who have crying children at restaurants! You know, it’s not the end of the world if one of them cries when you’re out. Everybody’s used to it. And of course, it’s good for you two to start feeling like normal people again and do some of the things you used to do. Also, it’s fun to have people admire the babies when you’re out. I like taking one of the kids grocery shopping with me because then it’s not so boring for me and I get to enjoy other people’s comments about them!
Hopefully things will continue to get easier for you. I’d say the first three months are the hardest!
Jessica