You live, you learn

We finally got Gus baptized this weekend, at just over 6 months. Mother of the year right here! Anyway, it went well enough, he cried and fussed through the actual ceremony because the poor little guy was completely ready for his afternoon nap, but other than that, success! And he looked adorable in his little baptismal bonnet. He is a boy, so it’s not often I get to put bonnets on him, and let’s just say I thoroughly soaked it up.

To be honest, I’m mostly relieved it’s over. We spent so much of last week cleaning, cooking, and preparing for the party, and I was just so spent. Entertaining is so much work and I have decided that I have NO kitchen instincts whatsoever, which makes it that much more stressful. I wish I was one of those people who could whip up a delicious meal without a recipe, but I am most definitely not. I’m not even one of those people who can whip up a delicious meal WITH a recipe. And when you’re cooking for thirty people, you can’t exactly follow a recipe, you just have to figure it out. I pretty much stressed and questioned everything… oven temperatures, timing, quantities… you name it and I likely had a mini-panic attack about it.

We went to the little Mexican restaurant down the street for dinner on Saturday night with my brother and his wife, and it was definitely a bit of a wake-up call as to the fact that we no longer have a baby that can just be carted along anywhere and everywhere. Gus was a bit of a beast to deal with, and I learned a few things:

1. Booths just don’t work. There is not enough room, period.

2. Breastfeeding in public with a 6-month old is becoming increasingly perilous. Gus swats around and squirms and pulls the nursing cover off of him, and generally just behaves like he is being tortured. It’s ridiculous. Also he is just so distracted by everything around him that he won’t really eat, even if he’s hungry. I can barely nurse him in front of the TV at home anymore, so why am I surprised when it is difficult in a loud restaurant?

3. I need to remember to bring cool toys with me. Distracting toys. Toys that Gus doesn’t normally get to play with. Otherwise, all he wants are the butter knives, beer bottles, and salt shakers. And no matter how well we think we’re doing keeping that stuff out of his reach, he’ll find a way to get them. If Gus was a Super Hero, that would be his super power.

4. I need to bring baby food. Gus wants to join in on the eating, and gets really pissed when he realizes that he doesn’t get anything because I’m a bad mom and didn’t even consider throwing a little cube of frozen squash in the diaper bag on the way out the door.