"Look at those signs!!"

Yesterday was such a yucky, rainy, frigid, messy, disgusting, sit-on--the-couch-in-your-sweatpants kind of day. There is nothing more annoying and generally disturbing to my comfort level and mood as cold rain. (Living in Seattle several years ago just about did me in.) Clara was taking the most wonderfully cozy nap and I hated having to wake her up to go pick up her sister in the horrible cold, but what was I going to do. Waking up a sleeping baby makes me so incredibly fraught with guilt and anxiety, so I kept looking at the clock waiting until the last possible second before we had to leave.

I have told Melaina that we can eat lunch from a restaurant once a week. I emphasize the word"from" because I am not brave enough to actually attempt lunch in a restaurant with a very tired 3 year old who has been at preschool all morning and a 7 month old who, anyone can tell you, likes to cry. Perhaps I'm a wimp but that's how I roll.

Anyway, when I went to pick up Melaina from preschool, I needed to run some errands that included picking up some prizes for her to choose from for having a clean room all week. So I had the clever idea of going to a Sonic since it was on the way to my mom's house and Melaina could eat there while I ran my errands. So we pulled into the Sonic drive-through.

Melaina shouts, "What is THAT??"

"It's a different restaurant" I answered, since Zaxby's is our usual lunch spot.

She processed this so-called new place and asked, "Do they have grilled cheese in there?"

"Yes, I think they do." I sure hoped they did. That kid loves a grilled cheese. "And tater tots", I added after I had placed the order. "You will have a grilled cheese, apple juice and tater tots for lunch!"

We sit in the drive-through line and I wipe off the freezing cold rain that had fallen on my nose while ordering. Ugh.

Melaina replied in the most romantic, pie in the sky voice you ever heard,

"OOOOhhhhh. That will be WONDERFUL!"

And then as though she was discovering the 8th wonder of the world, she added breathlessly, "Mommy look at those signs!!!! They have oranges on them. They are beautiful!"

I guess I have never looked at Sonic signage as quite so spectacular, but to this child it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. And in that moment , I thought of how I had looked at the day as a yucky, rainy disaster and that seeing it though her eyes was much much more fun!

Note: The "oranges" were actually limes, but potato potahto.