Is it Live or is it Memorex?

Do any of you remember that ad? Some opera singer would sing a high note which cracked a glass and then they’d tape her on a Memorex tape to see if their high quality recording would also break the glass? Am I dating myself?

And why do I bring this up? Well, this weekend our trip to Richmond, Virginia, we went out to a sit down restaurant. It was kid friendly which turned out to be good.

When we finally got seated—Danny is his high chair at the end of the booth, we were just perusing them menu when suddenly we all experienced THE loudest, THE highest and THE longest shriek that young Danny had ever produced.

All heads in the place turned. Was he hurt? Were we flogging him? Um…no. But you’d better believe that he was grinning ear to ear as all four grown ups tried to “sssshhhhh” him. As the closest first responder, I’m ashamed to say that my initial response was to quickly but gently cover his mouth while instantly changing his name from “NO BITING DANNY”, to “NO SCREAMING DANNY”. He totally loved it!

“ Oh, crap”. “Okay, everybody, ignore him if he does it again, he just wants attention” we all concurred. Easier said than done. You try ignoring a SCREAMING toddler who soon realizes that when mom puts her hand over his mouth that the game gets even more fun. Then there can be attempts at biting, and better yet, fun sounds like one makes while going “aaahhhhaaahhhaaahhh” into a fan.

He actually looked a bit apoplectic--as if a gasket might blow in his head, but kept that silly grin on his face.

Argh.

We made it through dinner with unbroken glassware and many sweet comments from fellow patrons who would stop by our booth on the way out to say thing like;

“Raised 6 of 'em myself, and they sure can be loud little critters can’t they?” (Can you tell we were south of the Mason-Dixon Line?)

I'm just glad he didn't practice his screech on the new baby who was sleeping oh so blissfully back at Grandpa's house.I was tempted to drug him (okay not really) for the two hour drive home but for some reason he was completely tuckered out and slept all the way home.

On the bright side, didn’t scream like that again until today. Right when I’d scooped him out of his high chair. It’s like he knew my left ear drum was right there. I’m kind of looking forward to getting a call from Jenni to see if he’s tried out his new playground voice on her and little Oscar today. Guess I’ll have to put the phone up to my right ear. Then maybe I’ll hear a bit of what she says. -Monica