Although Matt and I had decided that an in person hockey game was not the right place to take William, we spent a lot of time deciding whether or not to take him to a friend’s small dinner party at a restaurant. At one point we had decided that I would stay home with him instead, however, we ended up deciding to leave it to the birthday boy. So, I emailed Steve, and explained that either Candy and Matt only would attend his party or, if he was willing to let us bring William, I would also be attending. I wasn’t sure what his answer would be, especially as no other children were attending, however, he told me that it was fine for me to bring him.
Steve’s 40th birthday party was held at Nola’s in Palo Alto. It’s a special restaurant for the Perri family, with most of us, starting with me, having chosen it for a birthday dinner, and it will be the dinner for Matt’s 40th birthday dinner as well. I knew that for at least the first part of the dinner, William would be asleep from the motion of the car ride.
As always the table was decorated with a fun New Orleans style with Mardis Gras beads for flair.
Our server took a photo of everyone. This is the first time I’ve been in a group this size for a meal since my pregnancy and it turns out that everyone at the table is a parent, though our son is the youngest child of the group of friends by far.
William was put in a corner in his carseat. The seat was right behind Matt and I and we were looking back at him many times even though we could hear from his breathing that he was sleeping. It is remarkable that he did not wake up for several hours considering we had to take him through a parking garage in an elevator, down a busy street and up a staircase to get to the room we were having dinner at.
Though he did sleep for hours, at one point we looked up and he was wide awake. We then decided to move his position from this corner one.
I put him to my left, so I could see him easily. Candy jumped in right away the second he was stirring to see how he was doing.
At first she tried to just gently rock him to sleep, something she has had great success with in the past.
It did work at first, with him temporarily going back to sleep for a bit.
However, he woke up again, turned a bit red in his face and started bobbing his head a bit in a way he only does when he’s hungry. So she gave him a bottle. This bottle has stickers on it, indicating it is one that has my breastmilk in it.
Annette came over to see William. His cooing made Candy and Annette smile brightly.
It’s funny, usually he would be crying very loudly when hungry. Perhaps it was that we saw and responded to him soon, perhaps he knew he was in a loud restaurant which helped quiet him a bit, but William was not loud screaming and crying even when hungry.
Matt put our flair beads on William for a quick photo at the end of dinner, then took them off. As we said our final goodbyes, Tony, Annette’s husband said how good and calm of a baby William is. Though he is not always so calm, it was a great evening and I’m glad we decided to bring him.
~ Danielle
Over 40 First Time Mom 