We also went to McDonald's.

Yesterday I told you about going to Chattanooga to visit Cohen and Cora and their folks. Wednesday of last week was their anniversary. I took care of the kids that night while Lydia and Geron went on a date--according to Geron, the first date they'd had since Cohen was born! I contemplated ordering a pizza for supper, but instead decided to take the kids to McDonald's.

I told you in yesterday's blog about the difficulties of getting Cohen into that car seat--a bowling ball with legs (and chubby ones, at that). Cora wasn't so hard, since she no longer is in a five-point harness. About three or four miles into the trip, Cora started wondering where Mommy/Daddy were. I told her they were on a date, but we were going to McDonald's. McDonald's wasn't exactly where I remembered it, and I guess the ride seemed a little long to her. She got excited when she saw "my McDonald's".

She was really good about not running away from me in the parking lot, which was helpful, since I had to haul the bowling ball and his diaper bag (which seemed to weigh almost as much as he did). Ordering was not a problem, finding a table was not a problem, trying to figure out what to do about the drinks was a little more challenging, but still not a problem. The first problem arose when, true to form, two minutes into the meal, Cora announced, "I need to go potty." As we say at our house, strange terlet syndrome. So I hauled Cohen out of the high chair, grabbed my purse, and took them to the bathroom. She really didn't need to go, which was good, because I sort of had my hands full with her brother.

She had chicken McNuggets. The McDonald's had a play area. I told her she had to eat her McNuggets before she could go to the play area. She cooperated and ate the two she had on the table. Then she crawled on the floor and picked up the other two that she had dropped down there. I stopped her before she ate them. She got her straw off the floor and stuck it back in her cup before I caught her on that. Anyway, the meal was over, so we went to the play area.

She seemed just a little hesitant at first about climbing around with the other kids, but pretty soon I spotted her feet coming out of one of the tunnel slides. She seemed contented, the kids who were there were playing nicely, and I just smiled and basked in being the grandma of two extra cute little kids. A little girl younger than Cora came over to me pretty soon pushing a high chair, which I figured was for Cohen. I thanked her but kept him in my lap.

We planned to go from McDonald's to their church for the Wednesday evening service and children's activities. About twenty minutes before time for the service to start, I decided to call Cora out of the play area. She was nowhere in sight, which puzzled me, but I figured she was in a tube slide and would pop out in a minute. After waiting for a couple of minutes, I spotted her up at the top of the tower, with a little boy not a lot older than her holding onto her legs. He wasn't going to let her go. She didn't seem upset at all. I called up to him to let her go--he stared at me for about half a second and let go of her. Pretty soon she had climbed down and we were ready to leave.

On the way out the door with bowling ball (who can be pretty slippery at times), the diaper bag, and Cora, I realized my pants had come untied. Cohen was wiggling and kicking, and the danger of losing the pants appeared to be imminent. I had no clue what to do, since both hands were pretty much involved holding on to kids. Somehow I got a grip on them with the baby hand, and we made it into the car. Then I got the bowling ball buckled up, tied my pants back up, got Cora into the car, and decided I would NEVER go to McDonald's with them by myself again--at least not until Cohen is the one who says "I need to go potty".

Love to all, and God bless.