A Round of Applause

I had plans to take the monkeys to have dinner at Eric’s office today (He works next to a group a restaurants on his campus).  Jack and I picked up Owen after school and we drove toward Eric’s work.

We had an hour and a half to kill, so I decided to stop at Half-Price Books/Starbucks that is on the way.  During the extremely looooooonnnng ride (10 mins) Owen was quite confident that he would die of starvation before we got there (as I did not hand him his muffin while we were still in the school parking lot – as I customarily do.) 

At Starbucks, I got in line to get the drinks and the monkeys found a table.  Owen apparently decided that starvation was no longer imminent – and wanted to wait to get his milk before he started eating his muffin…  (He did not find it funny that I had my phone out poised to call 911 just in case he didn’t make it…)

As the barista put the drinks up on the counter, Jack yelled across the restaurant (in an extremely loud voice), “Mom, get a straw for mine!” to which I responded (in a much less loud voice), “yikes, try that again.”  Jack quipped in his sweet-sing-song-happy but still-very-loud voice, “Mama, will you please get a straw and put it in my milk for me?”

At this point, an old lady sitting at the next table sprang back a little in her chair, flung her arms and legs high up in the air, turned to Jack and yelled, (equally as loudly as Jack) “Good Job!!” And then she began to clap.  Another lady, who was sitting with the first, also yelled “Ahh!  Yes!  Polite!.  Boy!” (or something to the same effect) and began clapping too.  It seems that the politeness of a five year old is a very exciting event, because several other people in the restaurant also began clapping, and even more began to laugh.

Jack smiled a smile of shock, then of happiness, then of embarrassment, and finally hid his face behind his arm and under the table a bit, leaving just his eyes out.

I am not sure if this event is more likely to encourage Jack to continue to be polite, of if it will do the opposite.  (He suit jacket and tie have gone that “opposite” way because  he gets so much attention when he wears them…)

Oh! and although this event lasted at least 10 seconds, my dear readers will be glad to know that Owen did NOT die of starvation.  He actually found the whole situation quite comical and forgot completely about his earlier troubles and chatted happily about his day at school.