I loathe the Aquarium* and Faneuil Hall. Too many people, too many kids, too many germs, etc. On Sunday we decided to hit both up. Don't ask why... just trying to be a good mom and have some fun with the kids. Epic fail.
Beatrice and Theo slept 80% of the outing. Not that I'm complaining. I'll take a sleeping kid any day. Julian had fun, checking out the fish and the tide pool. All was going OK until a woman zipped by us dragging her 5 year old son, screaming she had lost her 3 year old daughter. Its a parent's worst nightmare. I went over to the woman and suggested she go to Information to alert security. They needed to lock down the place. She didn't want to leave the area in case her daughter was looking for her. Poor woman was not thinking rationally, I totally get it.
My sister told her she'd go down to security and asked what the girl was wearing. It was quite chaotic. My sister jetted down the walkway towards Security and Dave ran after her attempting to locate the little girl himself. I turned back to our kids in the strollers (Cory was now standing with them) and started the conversation about how important it is to always know what our kids are wearing, head to toe, coats and shoes included. Then I looked around "Where's Julian?!?" Cory thought he was still with Dave but I had just watched Dave book it down to the next floor. Oh God. I ran back to the tide pool to find him, then ran back to Cory who went out to find him while I stayed with my kids.
About 1 minute later we heard, "Would the parents of a little boy in a green and grey sweater please report to Security." Just as they were making the overhead announcement, my sister, the lost little girl, and a Security Guard were coming up the walkway. Cory ran down to claim Julian just as Dave showed up and they were handing him off to Cory. So that raises the question, how does Security know when its actually the parent and not just a pedophile claiming a kid? I know that Julian said Cory's name and went to him but what if you have a super friendly kid or non-verbal kid? Julian was completely unfazed by the incident and in all fairness he didn't do anything wrong, he didn't wander off from us, we wandered off from him!
Needless to say our day at the Aquarium ended right after that. God damn, I needed a drink. To calm down, we went to Quincy Market. At least it wasn't crowded or anything. Then it started raining on the way back to the cars. Just the last kick in the nuts we needed.
Although I made the day out to be miserable it really wasn't that bad. No matter how crappy the circumstances, whenever we are with my sister and family, we can find the humor in it.
*In all fairness, I don't totally loathe the Aquarium as it was the scene of my first 'real' date with Cory. We stopped at the penguin section and witnessed a male penguin mount an unassuming female penguin. He got down to bidness, then spunked all over her back. I thought that only happened in the smut movies. That memory forever bonds me and my husband.
It's a beautiful memory...something to pass on to your kids one day.
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