Tread carefully in these woods

Sitting a moderately priced restaurant yesterday in a booth towards the back, we are eating our dinner and generally not bothering anyone. Sure, K doesn't always remember to use his "inside" voice, but he's 2 and still figuring out how much range he has. So anyway, he gets a bit loud/over-excited and we remind him to speak softer, etc. Out of the corner of my eye I notice an elderly woman flip around in her chair to see what the ruckus was. Yes, it was a 2 year old. Now I wouldn't be phased by this if she did it once or twice - but this woman turned around fiercely in her chair to stare at us EACH AND EVERY time K got a bit loud. Now mind you, he wasn't being Walmart screaming his head off loud, just over-excited loud. Yes, there is a difference. Then when we left, K said loudly again "Time to go, Mommy" and as I was getting up I noticed elderly man (sitting next to elderly woman) hold his hands up to his ears (as if that would really help). I didn't say anything to them but waited until we were out in the car to vent. And now I'm doing it here. I'm so annoyed by people who act as though having a young child makes us second-rate citizens; that children should be seen and not heard, blah, blah f-itty blah, blah!! Seriously, that's how those people made me feel - like we were such an impositionn because we brought a 2 year old to dinner with us. Soooo, ehhx-cuuuuuuuse meeeeeeee OLD PEOPLE!! Please forgive us for daring to think we have the right to go outside the four walls of our home with our son - what in the hell were we thinking! Better yet, OLD PEOPLE, go p*ss up a rope! I'm through apologizing. K is 2 and by god I'm going to let him be 2. Yes, I will be mindful of his boundary testing, but I'm not going to force him to act "just so" because other people / OLD PEOPLE can't accept the fact that he's 2! If I can deal with his "fainting-goat" tantrums and uber-picky eating habits - then everyone else can too! On another note, I get an email from stuck-up relative that she didn't invite us to her son's birthday party because they're just having a small get-together in 7th-gateway-to-hell town. This is of course AFTER THE FACT. Well exxxxx-cuuuuse us! Nothing like having our faces rubbed in the dirt after the party happened....hell, we didn't even warrant an email shunning before the party occurred. Well, efff you too! Hey, new daycare provider - yes, I do give my son juice and he does watch tv! Ohhhh the humanity indeed! I like you, but don't push it because I have no qualms about choosing someone else to keep a watchful eye on K during the day. I'd prefer to not have to go through that again, but I'm at that point. Oh, and keep in mind that this is MY FIRST KID so I'm winging it here. I'm choosing my battles and figuring out what lines are ok for K to cross and which ones aren't. I think I'm entitled to a learning curve, not to mention that I'm NO WHERE CLOSE to being the worst parent out there, so bat your disapproving "juice and tv" eyes somewhere else. **************** I'm done trying to keep up with making people happy. All I end up doing is apologizing - my recent months have been one big sorry-fest and I'm sick of it. If I truly do something wrong, then yes, I will say "sorry". However if it's because other people expect us to act a certain way, live in a certain place, blah, blah....well, forget it. I'm through trying to bend our lives around other people's expectations. So there it is. Am I p*ssy? You bet. Tread carefully in these woods........