Parenting in public

Two interesting tidbits from the last week:
The first was highly annoying to me, the second so nice it more than made up for the first.
Last week, my friend Susan and I were walking near the mall when a woman pointed to Cora's monkey harness (visible here) and sniffed, "I must tell you, that is horrible."
Susan and I were both a bit stunned - Susan had already told me about the Elmo harness her daughters had used, so she fully understood why a parent might choose to use one; and in England they are common. Susan said to me, "What, she'd rather Cora run into the street and be hit by a car, or be forever strapped into her stroller?"
Later I thought of what I should have said to the woman: "Um, do you have children? Did you stay home with them? Did you breastfeed for the recommended one year? Did you use cloth diapers, or landfill-filling disposables?" Assuming one or more answers to the questions would be "no," I would then say, "Hmmm. See, I make different parenting choices than you. And I'm not criticizing yours."
The nerve of people!
Anyway, last night, a situation at dinner more than made up for it. Stace, Cora and I were at a sandwich shop when a woman with four small children sat near us. She had a baby and three that were, say, six years old and younger. She prayed with them before they ate, and the children were incredibly well-behaved. It made me think, here I am, sometimes feeling overwhelmed with just one toddler, and this woman is doing a fantastic job raising four! At some point during our dinner, Cora screamed about something or other, and Stace and I handled it as we thought best (NOT giving in, but remaining calm - in this instance at least!). When the family behind us got up to leave, the woman asked how old Cora was and complimented Stace and me on how well we are handling discipline with Cora. Wow! We were so touched, and we told her so, especially since she obviously is doing a great job with hers.

These photos show us today at the grocery store, taking advantage of the cheap turkey deals! We snagged a 15-pounder for $4! Cora is eating a sandwich - she already ate through her box of raisins. Going to run any sort of errands these days means being prepared. I have to have lots of snacks and books to attempt to keep Cora entertained and happy.

On the house front, we have signed our loan and expect to close on the deal Monday. We had been hoping to close this week and move in this weekend, but buying a foreclosure is a long, slow process. At least we should be able to get moved in and settled over Thanksgiving - and, we are thankful and blessed to have a home to move into. The fires last weekend really drive that point home, with hundreds of SoCal residents now homeless. The photo shows the smoke of the Sylmar fire visible from our apartment complex Saturday. About an hour after that photo, the fire crested the hill with huge flames. This time around, as opposed to last year, Santa Clarita wasn't too affected by the fires, other than having all the freeways shut because of the Sylmar fire.