Today I had the best lunch of my life. The food consisted of cold cheese pizza from Costco and my lunch date was my 20 months old daughter. The setting was the front porch step under gloomy skies with a slight mist of rain.

It was magnificent.

As my delivery date looms, I find I have less energy to fight Leina and she’s getting away with more and more. It’s all I can do to lumber after her and keep her from eating glass or sticking a fork in the electric outlet. Little rules like eating at the table and not harassing the animals have fallen by the wayside. So today, after waddling through Costco for an hour, I decided to make lunch easy and pick up a piece of cheese pizza and a frozen latte. We came home and I released Leina into our front yard while I unloaded the jumbo sized groceries. She proceeded to lie down on the driveway and kiss ants for a while. (She’s a true animal lover even if sometimes kissing the ant = eating the ant. Minor details.)

After I had unloaded, I grabbed the pizza and latte and tried to reason with my child. I wanted to go inside and eat. She wanted to stay in the front yard. When negotiations broke down (it’s hard to argue with someone who’s only response it “nooooooooo!”), I decided to resort to physical force. I began to waddle over to grab her but she saw me coming and, with a little scream, took off running down the street. Luckily, I am still a tad faster than her so I caught her before long and began to head back home. By the time we reached the front door, I was exhausted. Just the thought of carrying this kicking and screaming kid up the stairs to the front door was too much for my old body so I decided to admit defeat.

I plopped her down on the front step and offered her some pizza.

What ensued was messy, hilarious, and touching. Leina got to eat her fist slice of pizza with her hands. No table, no bib, no plate, and no pre-cut pieces. Instead, she had a whole slice to herself to chomp into. There was pizza sauce everywhere. On her cloths, her face, her hands, and her hair and she was in heaven. Of course, she got thirsty, so I decided to share my frozen latte which she sucked up greedily. After she had filled her baby stomach and hollow leg, she decided mommy looked a little hungry too. She proceeded to feed me bites of the pizza, sips of the latte, and even wiped my mouth when it got too messy.

But the best part, the true dessert of the meal, arrived when we were out of pizza and latte and both covered in sauce and grease. Leina came over to me as I sat on the cold concrete steps, wrapped her saucy little arms around my neck, laid her greasy little cheek on my shoulder and said…..”love you mommy.”

So I’m off to Oxyclean my shirt, change my pants, try and rinse the tomato sauce out of my hair, and savor the best lunch date I’ve had in a long, long while.