DHs bday was last weekend (47 - omg, so old!). His family always makes a big deal out of birthdays so they wanted to have lunch at this one restaurant on Sunday. Its a big noisy, but nice place and I thought it wouldn't be so bad for the babies. They are usually pretty good in the afternoon and it would only be a couple hours. Plus, my mom was coming, so if they got fussy, my mom and I would just leave with them and DH could come home later. Then, after lunch, the plan was DH's mom would come home with us for the night and stay with my mother while she nannies for us on Monday. That was the plan.
Well -my mom threw out her back and wasn't able to come. Then, we get to the restaurant. It was a reservation for 14. EVERYONE was late. Like 30-45 minutes late. wtf? So, we're just sitting at this huge table with two babies waiting for-freaking-ever. Babies were still pretty good and happy. Everyone around us is gawking because that is what people do when they see identical twins. Eventually people start trickling in. About an hour after we got there, we finally ordered. By this time the babies are a little fussy, but I have bottles and we feed them and they're ok again. It took about 45 minutes to get our food because we were such a large party. By the time the food came, the babies were getting a little tired and over-stimulated. DH and I were holding the babies on our laps and trying to eat because they were freaking out in their car seats and wouldn't let anyone else hold them. I got about 3 bites in and Haley lost her shit, so I just got up and walked her around the restaurant lobby until she cried herself to sleep. Then I came back and did the same for Lizzy, who by that time was freaking out. Everyone is still gawking at us in the restaurant.
So - finally after about 2.5 hours, I got both babies to sleep in the car seats. Food was being taken away at this point so I shoved a few bites of cold haddock into my mouth and thought to myself "well, at least its almost over, we'll pay and go home" Nope. Everyone started ordering dessert and coffee and all of a sudden there were gifts and DH had to open them. Babies woke up after 15 minutes and were pissed off. I didn't have any more bottles because I didn't expect to be gone so long, so they were just fussy and awful. Finally, I gave DH the look of death and tell him we need to go RIGHT NOW and we finally made an exit after nearly 4 hours!
And the drama didn't end there. Oh no - because now we had MIL coming home with us, and my mother is out of commission, so I have to find a last minute backup nanny for today. The dog is really nervous around MIL because she walks with a cane, so Bally was barking all afternoon. The babies were overtired, cranky, and would not nap. Bedtime was a huge disaster and I had to put up with MIL's running commentary all evening of everything that is going on and how her babies never cried so much and tell me in detail how she did everything differently back then (in the freaking 60's).
I managed to keep it together on the outside, although, inside I was kind of like this.


OK, vent over. I'm going to go self medicate with massive amounts of chocolate.
Re: long vent about my crappy sunday.
I love you guys. You're like my own little cheerleading team any time I need one!
Eleanor 9.30.13