Baby Scores Me Free Stuff
Yesterday afternoon I walked to Starbucks because the coffee well had run dry. Nola gets up before 5AM every morning and that means I need even more coffee than I used to just to get through the incredibly long, busy, fun day. Tangentially, if anybody has suggestions for how to get her to stop waking up so disastrously early, thereby reducing my coffee needs, I’m all ears.
But as the inimitable Sophia Petrillo says, I digress.
I have been excited to buy a bag of Christmas Blend since it first appeared a few weeks ago. With snow imminent, it only increased the joy I had while walking through Lincoln Square, listening to Midwinter Graces, en route to my favorite coffee experience of the year. When I got there, I noticed there was a 2-pound bag of Christmas blend and the top of my skull nearly exploded then and there.
“How much is this?” I asked.
“I’m not sure,” the barista said as she walked over to her register and scanned it. “Well, it’s $19.95. Oh my gosh, she is so cute. Hello baby. The one-pound bag is $13.95, so it’s a good deal. But let me check. I think I saw a sign about some combo deal. Give me a sec. Hold on one second, cute baby girl.”
For two minutes she scoured the checkout stand for some book or sign she had seen that promised to save me money.
“Well, never mind,” she said. “It’s for the one-pound bag.”
“I’ll go ahead and take the bigger one,” I said. “Could you grind it for a paper cone filter?”
“No problem. We’ll get your dad all set-up in no time, little girl.” Moments later she returned with my ground coffee (I used to buy beans and grind it myself but it’s not easy to do with Nola in-tow) and a free drink coupon.
“You guys are an awful lot of cute today,” she said. “Sorry to keep you waiting.” If Nola could drink coffee, I’d be compelled to split our loot. Although I don’t really enjoy it when people speak to my chest these days, never making eye contact with me, I have the distinct feeling the drink coupon was mostly a result of her adorable wiles. And since she’s a long way from Java, the the coffee is all mine.
Filed under: Daddy Things, Nola Eleanor
I seem to remember you getting quite a bit of free Starbucks things for the same “cute” reason when it was just you. You barista charmer, you. I would give you free stuff if I worked there, too.
Mmm hmm. Moms with babies = Cute. But DADS with babies = Cute multiplied by a factor of 10. I’m surprised she didn’t hand you a sheaf of stock certificates for Nola’s college fund. : o ) Free coffee’s good, though.
If she’s got it flaunt it , can’t resist cute nomatter what .
The very early rising baby… brings back memories. My son got up at 4:30am from 8 to 10months of age. He slowly started getting up later as he adjusted to us having stopped night feedings and no longer helping him get back to sleep when he woke up, but this only put us in the 5-5:30 range. When he finally started sleeping later is when we gave up the morning nap at 14 months. He sleeps till at least 6am now but often till 7 or 7:30 and still goes to bed at the same time. Before the “nixing the nap” move, we made sure he never took that 3rd late afternoon nap and moved his morning nap later (3hrs post wake-up time) and that helped some too. Alternatively, if Nola’s not getting enough sleep at night she may wake up earlier (I know counterintuitive), so she may need an earlier bedtime and/or her morning nap closer to her wake-up time. It’s weird because till a certain age having that morning nap early makes night sleep better and then one day it’s suddenly intefering with it. Both of my kids slept better at night when we put them to bed between 6 and 6:45pm. As they got older we were able to gradually make bedtime later but until 18months it was early dinner and straight to bed.
Good luck!