John: A Far Better Parent Than I

So I came up with this great master plan to celebrate John's first Father's Day this past weekend. I even wrote out a schedule. It went like this:

6 am - Wake up to Gabe and silently curse him. Then curse whoever came up with Father's Day because I knew I'd be grabbing the glove and getting up with him instead of John normally doing it.

6 to 8 am - Stare mindlessly at morning cartoons, avoiding The Wiggles at all costs.

8 to 8:55 am - Plop Gabe down in front of a tray of Cheerios so I can make breakfast.

8:55 to 9 am - Shove bacon, egg and cheese bagel down my throat because I realize I can't carry baby plus two breakfasts upstairs at the same time.

9 am to 10 am - Wake John up with happy baby and plate of bacon. Engage in family cuddle time.

10 am to 12 pm -Put baby down to nap so I can shower and get baby ready to go. Tell John to relax on couch.

12 pm to 12:30 pm - Feed baby lunch and attempt to leave house. Go pick up mom and take her out to lunch for her birthday. Leave house and give John orders to enjoy his alone time, i.e. watch as many shows on public access about the history of Gettysburg as he wants. Fill in commercial breaks with Mythbusters and a 126th watching of Band of Brothers. John and I differ greatly in our choices of television entertainment.

12:30 pm - Stop at pizza place and arrange to have cheesesteak delivered to house for John's lunch as a SURPRISE!

12:30 pm to 4 pm - Hang out with mom and baby. Assume John is napping on couch.

4 pm to 6 pm - Come home, bribe Gabe with more Cheerios and make special Fathers Day Dinner for John. Menu: Lamb chops because he loves them and I've never had them and/or made them, roasted potatoes and cauliflower with strawberry pie for dessert.

6 pm to 7 pm - Adorable family dinner followed by playtime (i.e. how tired can we make Gabe) then bedtime for Bonzo.

7 pm to 10 pm - 2nd slice of strawberry pie and general relaxation.

Ok well the morning started off on schedule. Then John threw it off. He really didn't want to be home alone and would rather go out to lunch with my mom and us. I know, cute right?

So plans went out the window and we headed to pick up my mom.

and we went to a little restaurant that I found on Yelp. It was aptly named House, mostly because the place had about 6 seats and it felt like you were eating in someone's kitchen. Luckily I had read all about it in the reviews so i was prepared. It was quite cozy and more importantly, empty...mostly because I really didn't feel like dealing with being the bumbling bull in a china shop with the stroller and a full teeny restaurant. 

Anyway, this place had some ridiculously good sandwiches like...

The Don Juan which was orange braised pork, cilantro pesto, red pickled onions on rosemary foccacia. i enjoyed every orangey bite.

John had the El Nino (which is Spanish for The Ninnnnoooooo name that beloved cokehead comedian) which was avocado chicken salad, bacon, tomatoes with a chipotle remoulade. I tasted it like I always do and gave it two thumbs up.

My mom had the Stilton Grilled Cheese...aged cheddar, gorgonzola and local apple slices. I've never tasted Stilton but my mom said it was strong so I passed. I like my cheese like I hate my cocktails...weak.

Oh and I also had a fun soda.

Gabe munched on a plate of cheddar cheese thoughtfully provided by the ladies working the counter. But all the pictures of him turned out blurry. But picture baby covered in bits of cheese. Got it? Good.

Ok so then we headed outside to take a family pic...

My mom hasn't mastered the big DsLR yet. Who needs the top of their head anyway?

Ok doing better here...but c'mon Gabe, seriously? Anywhose, we then drove around to find a park. And we drove and we drove. All of them were eliminated because 1) no baby swings 2) no shade and it was like 90 degrees and 3) creepers hanging out. So we did the next best thing, we got drive-thu Dairy Queen. Gabe napped while we sat in the car eating our Peanut Buster Parfaits and chatting. Then we took Mom home and headed to John's parents house for a surprise visit, which is around the corner from my mom. We stayed for about an hour, long enough to realize how unchildproof their house is, and took off.

So even though we were pretty much stuffed still, there was no way in hell I wasn't cooking that freaking lamb dinner. So I made it. And of course, like usual, the meat took a lot longer to cook than the recipe called for...so some of it turned out a bit red. I should have paid attention to the little lamb baaaing from my stove. But turns out, I like lamb! And so did Gabe. The sauce didn't hurt the matter either, it was a butter garlic rosemary sauce. Yum.

So once again, my anal scheduled plans went awry. But this time it was for the better. We had a lovely day filled with lovely food and lovely people.  And apparently John is a much better parent than I, because if you offered me a few hours alone? I'd take that shit and run.

And if you're an eagle eye, you might have spotted something else that happened this weekend. But I'll fill you in tomorrow. Because I'm an a-hole and it needs its own blog post.

Over and out.