So...I am not a real pro at taking it easy.
Today I drove the kids into the city to meet Dave for lunch. His firm has its own cafe, and the kids had a great time seeing Dad's office and even eating pudding and ice cream!!!
It took us way longer than I expected to get there. Between heavier than usual traffic for the time we were heading in, to being unable to find a spot very quickly in the parking garage I used, to the walk from the parking garage to his office...it took us nearly 2 hours.
Dave usually takes a bus from our neighborhood (about 8 minutes to the station) and an express train (just over a half hour) with a little walk left (10-15 minutes) from the train station to his office. So yes, we are definitely in the suburbs, but it doesn't usually take so long to travel in.
I wore Number Four in the ergo...and can I say I felt like this walking through the city with the kids?!?
I don't know how many of you saw that kind of silly Brenden Frasier movie Blast from the Past that came out some years ago. Brenden Frasier plays a character whose parents had built an elaborate bomb shelter, and who went down there with their young son when they thought they were being bombed. Some thirty years later (or something like that) their son gets to see what life is like on the outside.
I don't remember a whole lot about the movie, but I do remember one scene when Brenden Frasier's character meets up with an African-American mail carrier and says something like, "Holy cow, it's a real live negro!!!"
He doesn't necessarily mean to be disrespectful, he is just really stunned seeing something so foreign to his experience.
That is how I felt today...like people were absolutely flabbergasted to see my huge belly, baby on the back, with three other little kids...
"Holy cow, it's a real live family!!! With real children who have siblings!!!!"
Sometimes it cracks me up to hear these strangers comment to each other, within my earshot. Um, hello? I can hear you.
Mostly, the comments were either positive or incredulous, but not downright negative. I do try really hard to keep my kids dressed in cute clothes and to do their hair...though nothing fancy. I also bought some cuter clothes for this pregnancy, and was out in a really cute skirt with my hair and makeup done. Not to say I look fabulous with my ginormous girth, but at least I don't look frumpy. That honestly affects the type of judgements people make.
I tell my kids sometimes how lucky we are that we get to be missionaries of sorts for the family. That when we go out in public as a family, act respectful, and have fun, that we can promote the family as important and valuable to others who may not view families the way we do.
All in all it was a great trip in. The lunch was great, and we played at one of the huge city parks afterward while waiting for Dave to finish working. The kids had a blast.
By the end I found that my seriously huge belly was making the ergo really not so comfortable anymore, and that my feet were twice their normal size, at which time it occurred to me that lots of people I know wouldn't attempt such an outing. But I'm glad we did.
Now off to drink some more water and put up my feet before getting in trouble at the doctor's office in the morning.
