i know i'm one-note these days. what can i say?
My niece Madeline is quite a people magnet. I know babies are cute and all, but Madeline is really cute. Case in point: Fernando, Darin, Deirdre, my Mom, Madeline, and I had breakfast at the Marmalade Cafe this morning. Not one but two baby showers were going on at the time, and where there weren't baby showers, there were babies. Everywhere.
We had to wait for a while to get one of the few high chairs available, and when it finally arrived we discovered it had a broken belt -- not the handiest thing when you have to strap one a wily baby down, but conveniently my mother comes prepared and whipped out an extra-large safety pin, which held the belt, and Madeline, in place. And then we got down to the business of a)eating our breakfasts and b)keeping Madeline from decorating herself with our breakfasts.
The waitress, apropos of nothing, came up to us mid-meal and said, "We took a vote and yours is the best baby here." She said it low, so that no other table would hear.
It doesn't hurt that Madeline is a happy baby, laughing at everything. Deirdre says she just likes showing off her six teeth. (This kid is six months old and already has that many teeth. What are they feeding her?)
I know I wanted nothing more than to spend my day just licking the side of her face. Madeline returned the favor by sucking on my nose a few times.
Today was also the day Tamar threw Darin and me a baby shower!
Tamar goes all out for a party. She had vegetables and cucumber sandwiches and handmade scones and handmade cookies and I don't remember what all. I felt as though I should have worked much harder to come up with more people to invite--not so I could get more stuff, but so all this food would get eaten. (Of course, as is de rigeur for a Los Angeles party, people cancelled the day before. Sigh.)
It was great seeing everyone who was there: Tiffany and Michele and Tori and Brent and Harry... We just talked--no baby shower games for me! Darin talked excitedly to Dan, Tamar's husband, about Final Cut Pro. God only knows what Dan thought of that, considering he's a professional editor, but he did seem interested in coming by our house and seeing Final Cut Pro in action. Tiffany amused everyone by being fascinated by Damien's collection of baby books--I told her next time we meet at Border's we'll meet in the children's books area.
Bug mostly got clothes, which is fine by me. I don't have enough clothes for this baby yet. (Of course, I don't know how big she's going to be, so I have no idea what kind of clothes to have on hand.) Tiffany thought it was funny when I started talking about how I wanted to cry when I looked at teeny baby socks, and I said, "You just wait, Tiffany. I'll go shopping with you when you when you have to buy baby socks and we'll see."
Unfortunately, most of the pictures I took didn't come out very well, but I really liked this one:
Me, Madeline, my mom, and Deirdre
We went to Lawry's for dinner. My mom really likes Lawry's--every time we visited LA when I was younger we went to Lawry's, and I'm convinced telling her I've made reservations is the easiest way to get her to come visit me down here.
I made reservations for "A party of five: four adults, one baby" about three or four weeks ago. When we arrived at the restaurant, the place was packed (mostly with Asians--Darin and I speculate that Lawry's must be a big stopping point on some tours for Asian tourists), and when we checked in we said, "Yes, a party of five: four adults, one baby." In other words, we were not keeping Madeline's presence a secret--we were totally up front about our party's Baby Quotient.
Bad Sign #1: We waited for about a half hour when our name was called. We gave up the seats we'd managed to snag in the waiting area, pushed our way to the front, and were told that they had called us prematurely--they didn't really have a table available.
Hmmm.
Darin ran into a friend of his mother's, so we chatted with her for a while. Eventually the maitre d' called us again and took us to a table, a half-moon shaped booth. We asked for a baby seat.
Bad Sign #2: "Oh no, you can't have a high chair at these tables. If you want, you can wait for another table where you can have a high chair."
You have to request a table that can handle a baby seat? Are they kidding?
Deirdre said this table was fine--she certainly didn't want to wait any longer--and they gave us a booster seat for Madeline. Not that Madeline can actually use a booster seat, but it was a convenient place to put her and hold her. Deirdre did fine picking at her salad while holding Madeline in place (I get the feeling she's done this a lot). However, when it came time to eating the meat and potatoes part of the dinner, there was no way to attack the food and take care of Madeline.
I finished first and could feel an incipient need to go to the bathroom coming on. I got out of our booth and took my niece from Deirdre, who then had an opportunity to cut up her meat and mush the accoutrements into her baked potato. I walked up and down the aisles with Madeline, who had someone at every table we passed waving at her. (She obliged by giggling in return, not yet at the waving stage.) I have never seen any baby get this kind of response from strangers. I know this sounds cliched, but I'm actually kind of surprised no one rushed up and said, "I'm a children's agent..."
I now worry that my baby will not get as much adoration as Madeline does and I'll be crushed.
After a few minutes I came back and gave Madeline back to Deirdre, who could now eat with one hand again while holding the baby.
We had a great time (and great meal) at the restaurant, but I am so annoyed at Lawry's behavior I am firing off a really nasty letter to them.
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Copyright 2000 Diane Patterson
Send comments and questions to diane@spies.com