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Half full

Sometimes my glass is half full.  Tonight we took the kids out to dinner and I was optimistic that I would eat a bite of hot food.  My children are getting older.  They don’t require constant attention at the table.  Someone else would be serving the food.  So, it was going to happen, right?  Silly me.  I forgot that my children are drawn to public restrooms like a Kardashian to silicone. I tried to herd the cattle to the lavatory before we were seated.   They didn’t have to go.  Well, they didn’t have to go until the food arrived.  Then, my daughter whispered, “I have to go..” I finished the sentence for her “….to the bathroom, right?”   

I escorted her to the bathroom dodging waitresses carrying trays of steaming hot food.  I envied the person who would get to sink their teeth into a hot meal.  I forget what that is like.  

When we got to the bathroom my daughter revealed she really had to go to the bathroom.    At five years of age she is still to young to go into the bathroom alone.  I usually wait outside the stall.  However, this time she asked if I would go in with her.  “Please Mommy!”  There was a catch.  She wanted me to turn around and face the wall.  The only thing missing was a dunce cap.  

Toilets that flush automatically are fantastic until a child is using the facility.  My daughter was doing her business when the toilet flushed.  The water splashed back on her keister.  She was disgusted and distracted.  She complained and moved causing the toilet to flush again.  She demanded,” Make it stop doing that!”  There was nothing I could do but laugh since I didn’t have my tool box to disconnect the automatic flusher. She got angrier.  I laughed harder.  The toilet flushed again.   Her discomfort wasn’t funny.  Mine was.  The toilet flushed again.   I was standing with my face to the wall of a bathroom stall while my child was getting splashed with filthy water from a public toilet.  We couldn’t leave until she finished and she couldn’t finish because it wouldn’t stop flushing.  I can only imagine what the other patrons using the facilities thought about us.  

We finally made our way back to the table.  I took one bite of my cold food and my daughter dropped her drink.  It landed under the table and on my feet.  I gave her my beverage.  She looked up at me as she took a sip.  Her beautiful blue eyes were smiling.   My glass was now half empty, but my heart was full.  

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