Frances and the Pancakes

Last night, we went out to eat at Bob Evans. I had the "Bob Evans Pot Roast Sandwich" because they put "Bob Evans" in the name. It was a really strange sandwich, pretty much exactly how you would think pot roast would taste on sour dough bread. No better. No worse. But definitely odd.

But that's not the point of this post. Frances had pancakes off of the children's menu. She ate them really well, the best she's eaten at a restaurant in a long time (she usually gets to distracted by the surroundings).

After the meal, the plan was for Arial to drop Frances and I off at Half-Price Books and she would go to Wal-Mart. I thought that was a great plan because both Frances and I like hanging out at Half-Price Books. She normally runs to the children's section.

But last night, she was crying when I took her out of the car. She was crying when we crossed the road. She was still crying when I set her down inside the door.

I held her hand and we walked to the children's section. She cried the whole way, garnering a lot of looks but I was sure that she would stop when we got to the kid's books (all the way at the back of the store). She didn't.

So after a brief period of her continuous crying in the kid's section, I realized that she wasn't going to stop. So, I picked her up and walked back out of the store (still crying).

Fortunately, it was pretty warm out. She didn't want to be put down so I just carried her on my shoulder while she cried. We were basically stranded, so I consoled her as best I could. We walked into a World Market and I was able to calm her down a bit by having her point at various animals. Unfortunately, that was short lived.

We left there (since I didn't know when Arial would be back) and walked back to the Half-Priced Books. She was still crying and still didn't want to go in side.

A woman with a 7 month old came over and that calmed Frances down for a bit while she looked at the other baby. But when they left, she started crying again.

Finally (after somewhere around a half an hour), I kind of cradled her in my arms and she calmed down some. It was then that I began to realize that she had probably ate too many pancakes and had a tummy ache. I slowly took her into the store and walked to the back. There, I was able to find a stool to sit on with her nuzzled into me. We looked at some pop-up books and she perked up a little.

That's when Arial came back. Frances was acting somewhat better but she was still walking very slowly. Arial was kind enough to read to her while I looked at books and CDs (I picked up Dr Frank (of Mister T Experience Fame) "Show Business Is My Life", Shonen Knife "Genki Shock" and K's Choice "Cocoon Crash" and after one listen each, none of them are bad).

This marks the first time that Frances has eaten more than was good for her. I hope it doesn't ruin pancakes for her.

mwz