Stranded at Starbucks

Dear Lila,

After you, DiDi and I picked up GuhGaw from camp this afternoon, we went to the supermarket to pick up a few things and then headed to Starbucks because I was craving their new iced coconut milk machiato. En route, the sky started to darken but I thought we were fine because I'd heard that it wasn't going to rain until the evening. I'd heard wrong. We arrived at Starbucks, picked up my coffee and a bottle of water for you guys, turned to go out the door and oh sweet mama, it was pouring. Like get-soaked-to-the-bone-within-seconds pouring. And we had no umbrellas or rain cover for the stroller because the sun had been shining in a pretty blue sky when we left the house to pick up GuhGaw.

So no biggie, we were just about a 10-minute walk from our house and the rain would let up soon, right? Um, no. We stood under the awning and watched the torrential downpour for 5 minutes, then 10, then 15. You and GuhGaw amused yourselves by running around a pole and getting wet every time you ran out from under the awning. We'd arrived at Starbucks at 5pm and soon it was almost 5:30pm. If we'd left then, I'd still have to bathe all three of you and myself and cook dinner and feed you dinner, which meant you'd probably go to bed at like 10pm (your regular bedtime is 7). But we couldn't even leave then, because the sky was still leaking like crazy, so I decided that we would have dinner at Starbucks.

GuhGaw was so confused when I told him. "We have to eat dinner here?!" "Yes, we can't go home because it's still raining." "Are we going to have to sleep here, too?!" Thankfully, no, and thankfully, if you're going to be stranded somewhere during a thunderstorm with three small children, Starbucks is definitely not the worst place to be. We sat down at a table and GuhGaw and you played with his Pokemon cards--and kept inching closer to the guy at the neighboring table so that you could look at his laptop screen until you were literally looking over his shoulder and I had to say, "Oh my god, you guys, get away!" (Fortunately, he was understanding and smiled.) I ordered egg and sausage sandwiches for us and bought a pureed fruit pouch for DiDi and we actually had a pleasant coffeehouse meal. You, GuhGaw and DiDi really impressed me with how patient and well-behaved you were, considering we didn't have much to do to stay entertained.

By 6pm, it was still raining but it had lightened up a little, the sun was coming out and I was getting antsy, so I decided that we would make a run for it. We all got wet but we made it home safely and 10 minutes after doing so, it stopped raining and the sun started shining brightly. Seriously?

Love,
Mom