Familyness

Awkward

"Where going?"  Bri asks us.  We just dropped Ari and Luke off and school, so we have Bri and Lewis with us.

"We're gonna go get breakfast."  Brad answers her "We'll get you your favorite pancakes if you eat them."

"Nope."  I look back as she shakes her head "No eat."

"Honey you have to eat.  If you don't eat you won't get big like me and Ari."  I try to convince her "Soon Lewis will be bigger than you if you don't eat."

"Mommy's right."  Brad tries to help "You don't want him to be bigger than you."

"He baby."  She argues back "He eat milk."

"I know that, Sabrina, but the milk can make him get really big." 

We finally get to the restaurant, and find a booth in the corner.  Brad traps Bri against the wall so she can't run, and I sit next to Lewis, who is half asleep in his car seat.

"Do you want chocolate milk or apple juice?"  I ask Bri.  She thinks for a while about this extremely had decision.

"Juicy!"  She decides before going back to coloring all over her menu.  We decide to get her chocolate chip pancakes since she normally eats at least some of those.

"Do you wanna get the big platter again and split it?"  Brad asks looking over his menu "That's normally enough for us."

"Yeah, let's do that."  I notice Lewis waking up and start to rock his seat a little bit to help keep him calm.  He starts to cry a little so I pick him up.

"Did you change him before we left?" 

"No."  Brad answers "I thought you did."

I sneakily look to see if he needs changed now, and he doesn't.  He starts to tug on my shirt and we figure he's hungry.

"I'll go out and see if we have a bottle in the diaper bag.  I'd rather do that than feed him right now."  I start to get up, but when I look towards the door I freeze.

"What's wrong, babe?"  Brad asks as Lewis starts crying louder "Are you okay?"

"Tate's over there."  I point towards the door "Like my ex Tate." 

"Okay, so just feed him here." 

"I don't want him to see me."  I sit back down quickly "Especially with my boob hanging out.  That's really awkward."

"Then I'll go get the bottle."  He offers.  I stop him quickly. "You can't!  If he sees you he'll know that I'm here." 

"Then just feed him, Jen."  He starts to get annoyed as Lewis gets louder "He's hungry and people are gonna start getting mad."

I move over so that I'm across from Bri and stand up my menu on the table in front of me to hide so he won't see.  It all works out until Lewis starts to kick his feet around while he's eating, and knocks the menu over a few times.

Brad nudges me under the table just in time for me to look over and see that Tate is sitting at the booth across from us.  Lewis decides that this is the perfect time to "stop" eating and kick the menu down.  This time, it falls against the wall and makes a thud noise.  He goes back to eating right away, but out of instinct from the noise Tate is now looking over at us.

"Shit."  I mumble to myself as he walks over.  Bri, of course, over hears what I said and comments on it.

"That bad, mommy!"  She calls me out on my swearing.  Brad laughs at her and I tel her that it was an accident.

Tate makes it over to our table, and I quickly situate Lewis better so I can talk to him.  Luckily Brad talks to him as well.

"Hey, it's been forever."  He looks over at me "Congratulations on the baby."

"Thanks."  I smile trying to hide the awkwardness "How are your kids?"

"They're good.  Getting really big."  He looks between Brad and I "I thought you guys had more than 2?"

"Ari, Luke school."  Bri answers for us "Me Lewis babies."

"We just dropped them off and thought we'd come here to eat while Lewis was still asleep, but obviously that didn't work out too well." Brad looks over at me feeding Lewis.  Tate looks over as well, but can see as soon as Brad notices that he shouldn't be looking.  That's when everything gets worse.  I feel Lewis squirm around more and before I can do anything, all hell breaks loose.

Lewis randomly decides that he is done eating again and starts to freak out.  He spits milk out all over me.  I quickly hand him to Brad so that I can try to get myself cleaned up.  As I'm handing him over to Brad, he decides now is the perfect time to puke all over my arms and the table.  Of course, in the middle of all this, I'm not paying attention to it and only notice that my boob is still hanging out when Bri starts to laugh.

"Well, uh, you look busy..."  Tate looks extremely uncomfortable since I'm still half exposed with my milk all over me "I'll just go back to my table.  It was nice to see you though."

I don't even both looking up to say bye to him to anything.  Brad hands me a bunch of napkins while trying to calm down Lewis, and Bri who is mad because she now noticed that a little milk got on her drawing. 

"Can we just go home?"  I finally give up on everything "I'm a mess, she needs a nap and I just wanna get out of here.  I gotta get changed."

Luckily Brad takes me seriously even though he thinks it's funny, and we leave.  I take Lewis from him so that he can drag Bri out of the booth since she wants to stay.  She begs to stay so he picks her up and carries her out to the car where she luckily falls asleep after crying for a good 5 minutes.

"Hey, he's still hungry."  Brad hands me Lewis "I changed him and rocked him for a while, but he won't stop crying."

I take him and situate him so that he can eat again.  He looks up at me, letting his eyes toy with my emotions.  20 minutes ago he was definitely not my favorite, but now that he looks so cute, I forgive him for all of it.

"You're so lucky that you're cute.  And probably not feeling too well."  I gently trace my finger over his squishy little face.  He's starting to look like the perfect copy of Brad.  I notice Brad standing next to me, still laughing about earlier.  He stops as soon as he notices me looking, but starts again not being able to control it.

"I'm sorry, but that was freaking funny!"  He sits next to me "He looked terrified.  I haven't seen anything like that since Ari was a baby."

"That time was NOT funny!"  I think back to the situation he is talking about "The only good thing about that was that we were at home."

"I still remember the milk all over though."  He finally starts to calm down "It was hilarious."

"It was also my favorite shirt."  I laugh at my misery "There's still milk stains all over it."

"Yeah, I know.  I told you that you needed a napkin but you didn't believe me."  He thinks about something and looks up at me "You never listen to me."

"I know I don't.  I wouldn't always be right if I listened to you."