Yesterday, I was that mom. The one everyone stares at and thinks, "holy shit, will you shut that kid up?!", or possibly, "she should not be bringing that baby into a restaurant".

I have bragged on the blog before about how wonderful Lily is when we're out and about, and usually she is...but there is a first time for everything.

I took her to Panera for lunch since our house was barren (seriously, no time to go grocery shopping these days). I knew I was pushing her by doing this because it was awfully close to nap time. Although she is not in a "schedule" she typically goes down 3-4 hours after she wakes up, which puts her naps around 9am and then 1ish.

It was 12:30pm. Big mistake. Big.

She was loud, and not in the funny, cute way. For the first time, she was demanding that I give her food, as in pointing and screeching, like some sort of animal. The only thought running through my mind was, "I am NOT raising my child to behave like this!".  "Ok, Mrs. Professional Mother, then what the hell do you do in this situation?", I asked myself.

I came up with no answers.
I shhhh-d her a lot and attempted to verbally correct her by saying things like, "Lily! Use your words. 'more fruit, please mommy'. Um, yeah. She's 14 months old. Her words consist of "uh-oh", "nana" (for "banana"), "ma", "da", and some Japanese type language. This IS her method of communication.

My only defense left was to simply keep shoving the food that SHE wanted at her. Fruit and cookies, screw the mac&cheese and chicken. I literally could not cut up her fruit fast enough before she was screeching again.

Placating to her behavior. Lovely.

I could feel the cold stares from everyone around us and those glares that were clearly stating something obvious.

I relent. I am one of those mothers.
Oh, and, lesson learned: no optional outings during the nap window.