Never Again!

If I remember correctly we chilled out at home most of the morning while Mario was out helping his Nino or someone do stuff. I’d been telling him about Roxanne’s little boy’s party at the new Chuck E. Cheese for a week so he wouldn’t say I’m telling him at the last minute. He gets home and he’s raving on and on about how sleepy he is. I’m getting all the kids ready and 10 minutes before it’s time to leave he conveniently falls asleep on his mom’s sofa in the living room. Grr! I was so pissed. He never goes with us anywhere. I was about to leave when Mom asks if she can go so she can help with the kids. I say fine, but she needed to promise she’d behave herself and not start fighting over centerpieces or anything embarrassing like that (yes, my mother’s one of THOSE ladies *hangs head*). She said she’d behave.

I stopped by Dollar General for a card because I didn’t have one, nor did I have time to make one so we’re already running late. It took forever to find a parking space and once I did I had to change Alaethia’s diaper. As we’re walking around the building to get to the front we’re shocked by the huge line trailing out of Chuck E. Cheese. I said aloud, “Please don’t tell me we have to get in line just to get into the party?” Everyone standing in line looked completely bewildered, but I had no patience so I walked to the beginning of the line and asked one of the hostesses if we had to wait like everyone else, or just go into the party? She said the line was for people who just wanted to eat dinner (WTF?) not for parties. We could go in and are stamped with a fluorescent stamp and I feel a little overwhelmed at how crowded the place is. I don’t know how it is at other Chuck E. Cheeses—obviously I’m a noob because this is the first Chuck E. Cheese in the Valley—but I did not expect it to be that insane. I quickly decided we would go ahead and just have Alaethia’s birthday party at Peter Piper.

We found the party and I tried to make my way into the narrow aisles with my big belly. There wasn’t anywhere to sit to begin with and especially not 5 seats together. I sat Aly with me and the boys shared a chair and Mom got her own of course. Poor Roxanne already looked frustrated. I don’t blame her. I took Jaylen and Alaethia to play while Eenan stayed with Mom at the table playing his DS. What was really cool about the games and rides at the place was that they were all only 1 token to play. We ran out of tokens so I went to the machine to find some and it was a 10 minute wait before they filled them up again. I was so frustrated and getting hot flashes while I waited. When the kids were done I went back to the tables and my heart sank when I saw that Eenan wasn’t sitting with Mom. I ask her what happened and she nonchalantly said, “Oh, he went to play.” I could have yelled at her. Did she not see how crowded it was? She did the same thing at Jaylen’s 4th birthday party at Mr. Gatti’s one time.

This time, she was too busy holding onto this plastic football-shaped gumball machine and making sure nobody “stole” it from her that she wasn’t watching my kid. I knew she’d do that. Jaylen offered to go out there and find him but I said no; all I needed was to be missing two kids in that ocean of bobbing heads. I was relieved when I finally saw a little boy in a red hoodie rising up towards the ceiling on a ride and it was Eenan. I waved at him and gestured for him to sit with us when he was done.

I was starving because I hadn’t had lunch and was so relieved when the pizza finally came. I missed the first pizza when I was out with the kiddos. Eenan had already eaten. A lot of my co-workers showed up so it was nice seeing everyone. The hostesses started to literally rush everyone out so that was my cue to get up and leave. As I was saying goodbye to everyone I was oblivious to Mom going around the tables and collecting knick-knacks and putting them in her pocket. I’d made her leave the gumball machine (which she was mad about) because, hello? She can’t even fill it with anything because she’s diabetic. She was annoyed when Mr. Salas told me to go ahead and take a popcorn tin. I didn’t want it, but she, of course, grabbed it for me.

I needed to go to Walmart and Target, but decided I’d just wait to go shopping till later. It took about 15 minutes to leave the darn place because they have to run your hand under a black light to check for the florescent light. The crowds and heat had helped Alaethia get into a horrible mood, so straight home it was.

We got home and I just glared at Mario the whole time. He was being really nice because he knew how angry I was. I told him that he was most definitely going with us to the next party we got invited to.

As I’m cleaning up the kitchen table and immediately transferring all the candy into ziplocs and hiding them in the cabinet, Mom pulls a Cowboys helmet out of her jacket and gives it to Jaylen. Then she pulls a metal football player out of her other pocket and gives it to Alaethia. I snatch it away because she could hurt herself with it and just shake my head at Mom. And she wonders why I don’t invite her to parties. I can’t ever take her anywhere.