Friendly’s, The Doctor’s Office, Wendy’s

When I got home from work, Rachelle asked if I wanted to go to Friendly’s for dinner. Friendly’s is on my list of toddler-approved restaurants, and even though Layla was acting cranky and immature, I rolled the dice and agreed to tag along for the ride. Let the record show that I didn’t have a good feeling about it from the get-go.

Friendly’s is an interesting place. It’s full of germ-spreading children, and old people eating soup. Then there’s always that one young couple who have no children of their own and are flashing each other the eye across the table signaling “why the hell didn’t we pick Applebee’s?” Rachelle and I like it because if the baby throws food and starts behaving like a wild animal we don’t care. People should have known what they signed up for when they go to Friendly’s.

Not long after we sat down, Layla started acting up; but it wasn’t the typical throwing of food, or tearing the paper children’s menu in pieces. She seemed cranky and agitated. Eventually Rachelle picked her up and let her walk around. “Stay around here, Layla”, she said, like Layla was 7 years old and willing to obey boundries.

We noticed that she was doing this weird thing with her mouth. She was sucking on her bottom lip. It looked like she was chewing something. We pried her iron jaws open and immediately blood started dripping out of the corner of her mouth. Rachelle slipped into a panic which always helps the situation. I took her out of the dining room, careful not to let a bleeding infant ruin everyone elses’ meal, and cleaned off her face. Layla was again, cranky, but not in hysterics like I’d expect.

When Rachelle put herself back together, we checked the baby’s mouth again and it was bleeding even more. We decided to take her to the doctor’s office which was around the corner.

On the drive over she cried a bit, but I let her play with my iPod and she was fine. By the time we pulled into the parking lot she seemed completely normal. Her mouth wasn’t bleeding, and she was rather pleasant. To be safe, we went into the doctor’s office anyway.

Rachelle waited in line while I brought Layla to the kid’s waiting area so she could keep busy. When Rachelle got to the front of the line she explained to the receptionist:

“We were just at Friendly’s and noticed that our daughter’s mouth is bleeding terribly!”

The receptionist leaned her head over the desk to peek into the waiting room to see the ‘bleeding child’. What she saw was Layla open-mouth kissing an 18-month-old boy.

“She doesn’t seem to be in distress”, said the nurse.

No, she doesn’t, does she? We waited for about 15 minutes…basically until we witnessed Layla having the time of her life and then I scooped her up and we left the office without ever seeing the doctor. We stopped at Wendy’s on the ride home to get Layla some dinner and a Frosty. She tore through chicken nuggets like a Great White, which assured me that her mouth was just fine.