Tea for Two

So while even I await the launch of “something special” for Adventures in Da(d) ‘Hood, I’ll go ahead and fill the pages with some other stories and happenings from our life here in Central Pennsylvania.

Two Saturdays ago was, of course, The Royal Wedding.  Mama Bird actually woke up and turned on the computer at 6:00 in order to watch this event.  And the only thing she even cared about was “The Kiss”.  Are you kidding me?  She doesn’t even get up to pee at 6:00 in the morning because she’s too tired!  Anyway, I’ll admit I’m not your typical man.  I actually enjoy going to tea.  We don’t do it often enough.  So, about a week before the wedding everyone in the world cared about except me, Mama Bird informed me of a lunch tea that was taking place at Camellia’s Sin Tea Parlor & Gift Shop in Carlisle, PA.  It was, you guessed it, A Royal Wedding Tea.  Mama Bird didn’t even need to read the entire menu before I committed.  It read as follows:

ITALIAN WEDDING SOUP OR FRUIT CUP
WEDDING BELL SCONES
BLUEBERRY LEMON TEA BREAD
FRESH LEMON CURD AND DEVONSHIRE CREAM
WEDDING "TOAST" - TOASTED SMOKED GOUDA AND BABY SWISS ON SWEET BREAD
THE QUEEN'S FAVORITE - ALMOND BUTTER TEA SANDWICH WITH ROASTED CHICKEN AND PEACH CHUTNEY
HARRY'S FAVORITE - SMOKED SALMON & EGG SALAD TEA SANDWICH
CUCUMBER TEA HEARTS
ROYAL COCONUT CAKE
CHOCOLATE PROFITEROLES
BANANAS FOSTER CHEESECAKE IN HONOR OF PRINCE WILLIAM
KATE'S FAVORITE STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING
ASSORTED HOT TEA

Who wouldn’t want to attend this event?  That’s a lot of food, and it sounded delicious, too. 

So we dropped Little E off at Nana’s place on our way to Carlisle and wished Nana luck because Little E hadn’t had her nap, yet (more on that in a moment).  Upon arriving in Carlisle, we found that it just happened to be the day of the Art, Music, and Wine Walk, which includes live music, wine and food sampling, as well as outdoor vendors.  As you can imagine, parking was at a premium.  We found a spot in a metered parking lot and pumped the meter full of enough quarters to last about 3 hours, only to find that it had a 2 hour time limit.  Of course, once inside, we then found out that they don’t even check the meters on Saturdays.  So we decided that, since we only wasted two dollars, it wasn’t such a big deal.  Unfortunately, we arrived a few minutes late for our reservation and missed the menu recap and the tea offering, but our hostess was gracious enough to give us a private rundown.  If you are wondering, no, I was not the only male presence at the tea room, however, I was the oldest by about 34 years since the other one was a baby boy who was only a few weeks old.  The food was fabulous and the women sitting around us were annoying.  The hostess decided that, in honor of The Royal Wedding, a small trivia game was in order.  Great, useless information about people I frankly am not worried about.  And they were, to me, the most obscure facts you could possibly obtain about people who live such a public profile.  And these women knew the answers!    But, probably the most annoying thing about the entire event, was the fact that the two ladies at the table next to us actually had left-over lemon curd and clotted cream (or, in this case, whipped cream).  I don’t care who you are, these are the best part of having scones, NEVER leave either of those two things on your plate when you are finished.  We licked our plate clean, the sandwiches and the desert were also quite tasty, and the entire meal was very satisfying.

After we finished, it was time to go pick up Little E.  She was ready to go, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed WITH NO NAP!  Somehow Nana took her to the store, put her in a cart (which she REFUSES to do with us) and ran a few other errands.  We didn’t really expect her to sleep because she’s really picky about her bed, as in it MUST be HER bed, no one else’s.  Nana said, “Oh, she was a little angel.”  Oh the four-letter words I could use here.  Because for us, she took a nap in the car coming home and turned into a little demon when we arrived at the house.  WHY is she always so good for Nana and awful for us?  I just don’t get it.  Why is it that the kid is always good for grandparents, under ANY circumstance, but as soon as they are back in our “possession”, they can’t help but act up?  She’s only 2.  It’s not like she actually knows that the circumstances are different, does she?  I mean, this is crazy, we take her to the store and she screams bloody murder when we try to put her in the seat of the cart.  Nana takes her and she’s a perfect little angel.  We take her for a walk and she doesn’t want to sit in her stroller or hold our hands.  Nana takes her for a walk and she sits in the stroller the entire time.  We go to the Outlets and she whines while sitting in her stroller.  Give the stroller to Nana and she’s happy as can be in that stroller.

So we’re trying to curb the bad behavior, which is no easy task.  They say timeouts can be effective, just sit her somewhere that she can’t hurt herself.  We started sitting her against the wall, but she started hitting her head against it on purpose.  So we moved her to the middle of the floor, only to find that she’ll do something wrong and head straight for her timeout spot.  Now we’ve moved on to a corner, which seems effective, but now Mama Bird tells me that she walks straight to the corner when she doesn’t want to do something.  Are you kidding me?  Isn’t that like saying “Just take me to jail because I’m not about to tell the truth in court”?  Today I decided to try something new with the shopping cart, I placed Little E’s favorite doll in the cart before I even got her out of the car, and she went right in and let me buckle her in without any problems.  With a little thought and innovation, plus a little stick-to-it-iveness, I think we can get the upper hand.  We’re taking steps in the right direction, we just need to keep our eyes on the prize.