The Calm Before the Storm

Storms are much scarier when you have a baby with you. Here's how bad weather events usually play out in our family: I am busy and oblivious to the fact that a thunderstorm is coming. Brian calls from work to tell me to watch the weather because bad things are headed our way, then Gram calls to tell me the same thing. Then Brian and Pops remain calm while Gram and I freak out. Wednesday night was no different. This picture of Sam was taken on the patio at Mooyah - a new hamburger place near Gram and Pops' house - while we were waiting for our food to be ready. Not long after we had finished our tasty burgers, a whopper of a storm descended upon us. Texas weather can be sneaky and this storm got us good, despite Brian's warning-by-phone an hour earlier that we might "see some weather". We started to head inside Mooyah for shelter then realized, with it being almost all windows, it probably wasn't the best place to wait out a storm with a three month-old. So we quickly drove to the Babies-R-Us nearby.

We made it just in time. The lights quickly went out in the big scary warehouse and the rain started to slam against the not-so-sturdy-sounding skylights, while we wondered how long it would take for the roof to tear away and boxes of strollers and cribs to fall off the shelves onto our poor french fry-stuffed bodies. Gram showed off some smart thinking - we would go by the car seats and throw one on top of Samuel and pile our bodies on top of it if needed. But the fine employees of Babies-R-Us had a different plan. They wanted us all at the entrance to the store, waiting out the storm in front of all the giant windows...for loss prevention purposes, they informed us. Apparently they were afraid that we were going to sneak umbrella strollers and Diaper Genies down our shirts before being whisked away by the giant twister.

That's when all the momma-bears (and one Gram-bear) got a little protective of their baby bears. Everybody spouted off their variations of "I don't think so, Mister", with one mom even announcing they were welcome to strip-search her when the storm was over, because there was no way she was standing with her two young boys anywhere near those windows. As we ran with our young ones to try and find the restrooms, we discovered something better - the employee breakroom. Four concrete, cinder-block walls with no place for heavy boxes above. Funny thing, those same employees decided to join us soon after and we all waited on pins-and-needles for the storm to subside. Sam was a super-star. It was hot and cramped inside the tiny room but he just giggled, cooed, and charmed everyone with his flirtatious baby smiles. There were only three children who got a little teary - one little one and two big ones (I'm sure you can guess who the two big chickens were). It was over as quickly as it started and we headed home, a little shaken up but alive and well. Gram and Pops' house was still standing, with Sophie waiting inside for us, and the Straka house only had a small amount of damage to the fence and some flower pots, all of which were repaired by the next day. Needless to say, Samuel slept like a baby that night, having survived that whirlwind of an adventure, happy to know that Gram, Pops and Mommy were ready to do anything to protect our baby bird!