Mommy Monday: Cheesecake Meltdown

As new parents there are many firsts. The first tooth, the first time baby rolls over, the first step. The writing was on the wall, we should have seen it coming, but with as much surprise as the first word spoken out of her sweet little mouth, we were faced with a very public first temper tantrum! I mean we are talking fully loaded tantrum!

After a great morning at church, we were on our way for some lunch and shopping. E was very excited about shopping, especially the idea of visiting Pottery Barn Kids to check out the pink kitchen.
Our first stop was the Cheesecake Factory. We were seated and the hostess graciously took our stroller and parked it with the other strollers (there were a lot of young children in the restaurant that day). As the stroller disappears E has major stroller withdraw. "My stroller! My stroller!”. We tell her that the stroller will come back after lunch; she was OK about it but not thrilled. The waitress was awesome and brought E some bananas and bread pieces while we waited for the food. All was well until E remembered her stroller again, "My stroller! My stroller!". The next step was total distraction. I held her on my lap and told her an elaborate story about a frog, pretty good for off the cuff. This seemed to appease her and we were able to get through half of our lunch without incident.
The next thing we know, E stands up in the booth, holding her tiny pink stuffed dog in her tightly clenched fist, and throws the stuffed toy in a plate of ketchup! I found myself staring in disbelief, mouth wide open, and thinking this is supposed to be other people, not us! Oh but only if it ended there. E proceeds to stiffen up like a board and throw herself under the table! Lucky I had a good hold on her and was able to guide her back up into the seat. On the way back to the seat she grabs my hair and sunglasses in a fit and throws the glasses! At this point we have an audience, so I did the only thing I knew to do at this point, RETREAT!!!! I gathered her and her bag up and told my husband to meet us outside after the check. E and I headed over to the stroller, you know the beloved stroller that started the whole meltdown, where she proceeds to say, "Oh my stroller, thank you, thank you!". What do you say to that? She and I make it outside, and I find myself face to face with my 23 month old, having a talk about what just went down. We talked, hubby emerges from the restaurant and we try and salvage the rest of our day.

We really did have a great day after the Cheesecake meltdown. E was fine for the rest of the day and we came away with another first of many under our belts.