Disastrous Morning

Well, that was a disaster. I took The Boy, The Girl, and The Baby with me this morning to the Green City Market in Lincoln Park/Old Town. After eying all the gorgeous produce on display in Seattle this weekend, I was jonesing for some produce that I could actually take home and eat. Plus, the weather today was perfect for the market -- 70, sunny, with a slight breeze.

Apparently, everyone else with small children had the same idea because the market was mobbed, and parking was difficult to find. We parked on Wells at least 3 blocks away from the market itself (at least the meter was broken) and walked over with the stroller. The Baby was one giant temper tantrum, starting from the moment that The Girl got out of the car and wanted to get in the front of our stroller. He didn't want to ride in the jumpseat. So he threw a tantrum, complete with top-of-the-lungs screaming. I decided to ignore him, which is apparently not done in Old Town. A sales clerk at Handle With Care peeked her head out at him, and not in a sympathetic way. If I could afford to shop there, I wouldn't anyway just for that.

At the market itself, things were not much better. The Girl wanted to get a pastry at Bleeding Heart Bakery, and I got one for The Baby as well. The Boy didn't want anything. We sat down in the kiddie chairs set up by the demo table adjacent to the bakery's stand, but The Baby took one look at The Girl's raspberry bar and went ballistic. Screaming ensued, pretty much until we left the market. While I strapped a writhing, screaming Baby into the stroller, an older, bearded man made a comment that The Baby was protesting his loss of liberty. When I said that he'd been screaming before I put him in, he noted, accurately, that he was just tired. With the wait for a crepe totaling more than 30 minutes, there was little reason to stay. So we headed back to the car. At least The Baby stayed awake until we got home.