A visit to Starbucks - I think I'm finally learning!

Last week I decided to take Matt to Starbucks. We do this every so often since it's on our route home. I already knew a couple of things:

1) Don't order a hot drink when you have a stroller because hot drinks always spill
2) My son and straws are a lethal combination. Due to the aforementioned straw rule whenever I order a drink for Matthew at Starbucks I request it in a cup with a lid so that it at least keeps some of the milk in the cup.

So ... we went to Starbucks.

The Starbucks we went to does not really cater to the stroller crowd, and those that do have strollers have Bugaboos or the like. (Our stroller is the $19.99 Zellers special that Matt prefers over any other. I do too. It does the job much better than the expensive ones now in my parents garage).

Whenever I take Matthew out we call it "going for coffee." That's what I say when I meet my friends whether we are ordering lattes, tea or just coffee. And, Matty loves the term. He uses it all the time. For instance, if he is has a sippy cup of juice and I have a cup of coffee he says "mommy's coffee" and "Matty's coffee".

Given that that day was a particularly busy day we had to stand in line twice - once to order and once to wait for the chocolate milk and my passion iced tea lemonade (see rule #1). I was entertaining Matt by asking him what he was going to have to drink. He kept saying "Matty Matt have coffee". And I would say "yum ... coffee".

Finally, the woman behind me tapped, yes tapped, me on the shoulder and said "Excuse me, miss, but are you giving your son coffee?"

What almost came out of my mouth was an apology of sorts and an explanation that no, I would never give my child a cup of coffee. But something stopped me (maybe the memory of being tapped by a stranger who didn't even comment on how cute my child was!). I said to her the following:

"Yes, I sure am. It's what keeps us going all day."

With that I picked up my drink, picked up Matt's drink, handed it to him and said "here's your coffee" and walked out of the store.

Silly, but this is probably the first time I have just ignored that inner voice to be a perfect mom and was just myself. And, it was pretty funny.