Friday, September 21, 2007

I'm just not friendly

I'm not. This has been known for quite some time. I don't play well with others.

E and I were at the park today, after a nice long run and ambitious power walk up the monster hill. We were relaxing on a blanket, minding our own business, E was trying to eat my shoe. And then, another mom showed up on the scene. She had a crusty, stained, dirty and snotty faced toddler with her. Who made an instant beeline for our cozy blanket.

"Beebee! Beebee! Beebee!" She shrieked, teetering her way closer and closer, arms outstretched.

Fabulous.

Her mom followed closely behind, telling her to be gentle with the baby. Gentle? Gentle? Gentle is for kittens and puppies. How about don't touch? No? Umm, Stop? Halt? Nein? Nyet? Nelzya?

Thankfully for all of us, she stopped about a foot from the edge of our blanket, threw a handful of grass at E, and then retreated to behind her mother's legs. New people are the highlight of her day, and E was enthralled. I, however, was not. Brushing the grass off her head, I may have given an evil eye or two.

The mom tried to make small talk - asked how old E was (8 months? 9?), commented on not being able to remember when her girl was that little, and how beautiful her eyes are (okay, so I melted a little on this one). Apparently my short, one or two word answers gave off the appropriate vibe, and she picked up her child and headed off to the other side of the park. And then proceeded to evil eye me for the next 15 minutes.

Maybe I need to carry around a little warning sign I could set up around us, letting everyone know that I am not a friendly person and don't take well to germy, dirty toddlers hurtling towards my child.

4 comments:

Making A Modern Family said...

Ahhh, crusty toddlers. I evil eye them as well!

Anonymous said...

As the parent of a crusty toddler, I commend you for wanting to keep them away. I personally don't let mine go running up to other people's babies since it's RUDE and, frankly, I'm also not at all friendly. Fortunately, my crusty toddler is pretty content to point from afar and declare "Baby! Baby!" It keeps me from having to talk to strangers. Yay!

sourpatchbaby said...

The Kid is not always crusty, but I totally understand where you're coming from. At least the mother had the common sense to leave instead of encouraging her child to touch or play with yours. I get the chills just thinking about it.

Cassidy said...

Hey, great to hear from you! Yeah, we're both pretty dang excited to be together again...although I'd much rather it be the end of the deployment already!

Your baby is such a pretty little girl. And you're looking great! My brother's baby - my first nephew - is about 2 months behind your girl and he is just the joy of all of our lives right now! Aren't they fun?

We need to hang out once we're all back in our beloved (what?!) Hinesville.

Take care! Oh, and are you still doing those blanky things? Cause those looked fun ~

Cassidy