Lunch With The Princesses

Today, we do not have school. Why we are already having a teacher inservice day only seven days after school came into session is beyond me, but, hey, I don't make the schedule. I volunteered to keep Princess W at our house so Her Highness would have someone to pal around with and so that her folks wouldn't have to pay for a sitter.

Things were going well so RxMan (who is on vacation for a week) and I decided to take Her Highness, PW and The Conqueror out for lunch and errand running. We opted for Pizza Hut because of the speediness of its buffet and casual atmosphere that is conducive to a hollering nearly eight month old.

It was actually a pretty nice lunch. TC behaved and thoroughly enjoyed the mac 'n cheese, the pizza was good and so were the princesses. RxMan and I were surprised by how much both girls ate. HH ate 3 slices and had pudding, breadsticks, strawberries and wafer cookies. PW ate 4 slices and had lots of the other things on the buffet that HH did, too. I remarked to RxMan that PW ate more than I did but thought little of it because she is a big girl with a big appetite.

Next, we slid through Starbucks. I am totally addicted to the Raspberry Mocha right now since I have discovered that my consumption of chocolate doesn't affect TC anymore (Holla!). I usually get HH a kid's hot chocolate because, hey, even little princesses should get to experience the deliciousness and decadence that is Starbucks. HH said she was too full but PW wanted one so RxMan obliged.

The last stop was my school; classes begin Tuesday and I needed to get my books. I was in the bookstore for maybe 5 minutes and came back out to discover PW and HH out of the car, resting on the curb. I was suspicious immediately.

Turns out that PW had overindulged. The four slices, 6 breadsticks, 2 cinna-sticks, pudding, 5 strawberries and various other foods did not sit well in her delicate system. Her tummy hurt. Real bad, she said. She thought she was going to puke. Sigh.

I mean, c'mon. Can she not, at seven, figure out when she is full? Her parents do not eat out often with her but I know that it is not something that she does so rarely that she has to eat like it is the last meal she will have this month. Well, she never did puke. Thank heavens.

I am not a very nurturing person. I don't come from nurturing people. My mom was not the one who sat with you and rubbed your back while you vomited. She did not put cool cloths on your head and bring you ginger ale. She told you there was 7 Up in the fridge and to clean up your mess when you were through. What could she do, really? So, the idea of having to love on some one else's kid was not even a little appealing to me. Particularly because she did it to herself by acting like a hog.

So, that is a lesson: don't take kids to a buffet if they have impulse control issues.