When I first mentioned to Sara that we were going out to eat, her first response was, “I just want the fries, Mom, not the pizza.” Despite that decidely 4yo response to a treat, I could tell she was excited about going out. I love the dine out. This month I’ve finagled it more that I usually do. We don’t tend to eat out as a family. Usually, it’s just me and Wayne on a date or me by myself for lunch or me with the girls. Our past experience with Laura has been less than stellar. I thought that now the girls had turned another year, it was time to try again. The trick to success is to start early in the evening. After we were done with naps, we started mobilizing for dinner. We got the girls gussied up into jacket for the 40 degree clear cold evening. Laura seemed fussy for the expedition.
We arrived at the Hi-Life, a favorite of ours, for their variety and flexibility with kids around 5:15pm. There were not as many kidlets as I expected. I came armed with immediate food and a plan (like the Cylons). The first snaffoo was the fact the highchair didn’t have a working belt. That meant I had to keep Laura extra entertained. Laura has just discovered crayons this week. She’s switched to the one’s class at daycare and they do art. So she recognized when Sara starts doing projects at her art table and has started ‘asking’ to draw also. We’ve given her a crayon and taped down a piece of paper and she’s happy to draw. She requires close supervision in case she gets creative at the nearby wall or topples over in the chair. So she got excited when the waitress set down paper and crayolas. This lasted for 5 minutes while we emergently ordered fries and cheese pizza with our drinks to curb appetites. Before Laura could complain too much, I’d removed the forgotten art project and plunked down a snack of banana and cheerios. This kept her going till fries and pizza arrived. Both were popular with Laura. True to her word, Sara turned her nose up at the pizza.
By this time, Wayne and I actually got to order our meals. I went for the special, a steak marinated for 2 days with sweet potatoe frites and broccolini in shallot butter. Wayne got a pizza with roasted grapes, prosciutto, ricotta and other things. It tasted like bread with grapes. It was tasty, but the grapes were the primary taste for all those other wonderful ingredients. My steak was excellent. It stayed juicy at my requisite medium well and the broccolini was very tasty. At this point, I was pulling out toys to earn each bite of steak. Sara instantly wanted anything Laura played with. There was some scrambling for toys. I got mostly finished before Laura decided the seat was too much. After 1 1/4 hrs in a high chair, I thought it was only fair to let Laura wander. Wayne got the bill. We decided to change venue for desert. Laura toddled (she’s fast these days) repeatedly to the lounge or the heater, both of which were off limits. Otherwise, she was catapulting her body in front of busy waiters. We left feeling very positive about the experience.
We stopped off at the Scoop and had decadent ice cream. This is the first time I’ve seen Laura truly enjoy ice cream. I think she finally got it. I’ve offered it to her before, but it didn’t seem that interesting. Now she was getting a piece of everyone’s action, espresso chip from Dad, Mint/Mulkiteo Mudd shake from Mom, and even some mint from Sis. When we got home, she used the sign for milk. Language is increasing. She’s babbling a lot but not saying much distinguishable beyond “uh oh”.
Wayne and I put the girls to bed, watched an episode of My Name is Earl, and went to sleep (except for silly me who uploaded photos of the birthday and wrote this blog entry:)
