Horse races and a sick mommy

This was yet another weekend for the books. On Saturday, we took Son to the horse races at Belmont, to watch another Belmont Stakes and lose small bets. Well, one thing is for sure—small children get frantic in huge crowds. Son proceeded to have 3002 tantrums, forcing the Diplomat to walk him around in the crowd several times as a distraction.

Imagine us: a zillion people around us, not all of them of the most gentile sort; some smoking horrible, cheap cigars right next to us, other smoking pot right behind us, and third screaming obscenities at the jockeys as they paraded the horses in front of us; a screaming Son, jumping up and down and crawling under the benches in the filth; his portable potty set up next to us, bags of snacks and a couple of beers for me and the Diplomat, from which Son is desperately trying to take a sip. All of this while I am trying to make educated guesses and bet at least $2 on the horses. Along with us were another couple of good friends with their 4 year old boy, who was incredibly well behaved. Nothing makes me feel more like a bad mother than having Son screeching and throwing himself around like a wounded elephant next to another child who is sweet and well-behaved.

In a fit of motherly genius (NOT), it dawned on me that Son might be hungry. I gave him a nutritious snack of Cheetos, corn chips, pita chips and a pretzel, and lo and behold, the child brightened and started smiling. Too bad it was time to go home. Moral of the story—do NOT bring a hungry and possibly under-slept child into huge, confusing crowds.

That same night, the Diplomat and I decided to go out for a romantic dinner in the city. Our choice of restaurant was, at best, unfortunate—we were the ONLY ones there, which, given the enormous size of the place, was quite unnerving. It did not help that the server spent 85% of the time were there at our side, chatting. Nothing spells romance better than that experience, I daresay.

And on Sunday, I suppose I was down with a nasty food poisoning. LOVELY! I spent the entire day in bed, while Son proceeded to jump up and down the bed and on top of me. While it was very sweet and funny, it also involved a superhuman effort on my part not to throw up while he pranced on my stomach. I feel much better today, thank you.