Lunchtime

Jud got back from his business trip late on Wednesday night and I let Gideon stay up late to drive down to the airport with me for the pickup.  I didn’t tell Jud about it, just in case Gid was too wild and would have to go to bed.  He took a super long nap that day (over three hours…can you say growth spurt?) which, unbeknownst to him, was his golden ticket. After Piper was in bed and with my mother’s help bathing and dressing the Gid, we slipped his socks and shoes on him just in time for Jud’s call. We left Yaya (Piper has renamed Mom-mom and we all prefer the new one, I think) and Piper at the house and drove down to surprise Jud.

Gideon is very into surprises right now. Safe to assume that Sesame Street is the culprit as there is an episode that features the word.  Maggie Gyllenhall is all “surprise!” and the little puppets are all “surprise!” and it’s very cute but more than a little over the top since she totally is not surprised after the first time that they yell it. Then it is NOT a surprise.  Why do I feel the need to write someone about this?  Because I am insane. So we are driving and Gideon is reminding me to “look out for the holes!” every twenty feet (winter has been sehr shwer on our roads) and randomly tells me about how scary it is outside because it is so dark and these lights should be brighter and why am I not stopping if the cars lights in front of me are red and maybe we will go somewhere else after the airport and maybe we can go inside the airport and we will see the planes and we can touch them, right? He is sleepy and he will sleep in the car now “aahhh, sheeeewwww, ahhhhhh, shewwwww”.   It was one of the most amusing car rides of my life.

We saw our very tall, very well dressed guy standing underneath the awning and when we opened the door to the car, Gideon yelled “SURPRISE!”.  After Jud threw his bag in the trunk, Gideon yelled it again.  “SURPRISE!” Jud was surprised.  Surprised and thankful to see his little guy after five days. Five days feels like an eternity when they are this little. So much growth in such concentrated time.

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To celebrate Jud’s return we went to lunch as a family on  Thursday. Gideon wanted chick nuggs but we just couldn’t go to McDons.  Something about eating there again made my stomach flop. We went through the drive through at BK and picked up his lunch and then zipped over to Chipotle, the land of cheap, fast culinary delight. Carnitas! I’ll never betray you!

We ordered, sat down and put Piper in the high chair. We strapped her in and had her facing our table at the corner, just out of reach of the food.  Gideon was happily dipping his fries in honey and munching on the chicken feet shaped nuggs. Piper turned around and saw….her audience! Her people!  Hello world!  She stayed completely disengaged from our table for the rest of the lunch.  Content instead to watch the other patrons, attempting to get their attention at different intervals, waving with one hand, sometimes two, hoping against hope that the other little girl would acknowledge her and strike up a conversation in spite of the fact that she was a few months younger and across the restaurant. She only turned toward us to swipe pieces of food out of my hand and shove them into her mouth. If she could accomplish this without looking at my hand, all the better.  We had a sneaking suspicion that this is what it is like to eat with her at fourteen when our presence is not only uninteresting but way less cool than all those other people who are normal. Good thing that will be the exact time we’ll be locking her up in her room until she’s thirty.  Nice try, baby.