It's always tapioca pudding....shiver

    I called my girlfriend the other morning and asked her if she wanted to go to Costco.  ‘Would I!’ she excitedly replied.

    Said girlfriend and I used to enjoy nosing around boutiques and loitering in coffee shops till four o’clock when we could crack open the plonk.  We have kids now.  You can take a kid to a coffee shop but you spend more time playing D on your cappuccino than drinking it.  Having a glass of wine while caring for children is about as relaxing as doing your taxes on a balance beam. 

    I don’t like Costco.  It’s too bright, too crowded and when they’re always just out of sample wontons when I hit that table.  The husband loves the place.  Mind you, the only thing the husband loves more than me and the kid is a deal.  Paying retail is anathema to him.  Many women would be concerned if they woke up on a Saturday morning and their spouse was not in bed.  I know there’s a gate crasher special somewhere and he will be home soon with a shit load of toilet paper. 

    The baby still requires a morning and afternoon nap.  I used to be able to strap him into his car seat and he would sleep wherever.  He’s now persnickety about the nap thing and requires naps to occur in the crib.  For some unknown reason, I helped train him to do this.  If I take him on the road during nap time he won’t sleep.   Normally, my child has a sweet disposition, if he doesn’t have his nap he morphs into Lindsay Lohan lookin’ for a fix.

    So, daytime outings are limited to a small three hour window.  Going for a walk during this time would be great if I didn’t live in Nova Scotia and it wasn’t winter.  So what do you do?  You want to take the baby somewhere that he’s going to enjoy right?  Apparently, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree cause you know who else loves Costco?  The baby does, that’s who.  There are lights and people and brightly colored goods to look at. 

    You do a lot of stuff to make the baby happy.  You do a lot of stuff to get out of the damn house once in a while.  I’m sure that someday my girlfriend and I will return to our old habits.  For now, a trip to Costo is good enough.