Baby in a Bar – We were those people.

We were hungry.  We were out of food.  We had a Restaurant.com certificate for a sports bar.  Yup, you can probably guess the rest.  We were THOSE PEOPLE.

In our defense, bars are smoke-free in Maryland and Eleanor has always liked loud places in the past.  The louder the restaurant, the more likely she is to konk out.   She also shows interest in people watching.  So, we thought she might like the excitement of the Sunday night Ravens vs Patriots game.  We also thought that even if she was a bit noisy, that it shouldn’t disturb anybody like it would a quieter place.

But, Rob and I, not being sports people, didn’t really think about the amount of screaming and angry shouting that would be occurring.  This was not our previous noisy restaurant scenario.  With each bout of shouting, Eleanor got upset.  The girl was NOT happy, but we had already ordered, so what could we do.

We tried to act excited with each boisterous moment, to show her that everything was okay.  She wasn’t buying it.  We tried to occupy her with the toys that usually maker her happy (aka napkins and sugar packets) .  That didn’t work either. (Hmm…note to self…bring better toys.)

We just had to eat fast and pay the check immediately, but the whole fiasco still lasted too long.  The poor thing.  I felt terrible.

On the way home, I told Ellie that this would not be our first screw up and that we hope she will always forgive our stupidity.  I hope she won’t need therapy.  (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.  Most people could use a little therapy.)

Lesson learned.  Don’t take a baby to a bar during Sunday night football… even if you have a coupon.