Our Lovely Dinner

We have found a church that we can now call home... Church of Celebration (COC) Metro! It was so hard to leave Pastor Scott and Faith Wesleyan back at the beach but we are so blessed that we have found a church that we love so quickly. Our sweet pastor and his family invited us to dinner this past Sunday night so we could all get to know each other better. I warned him (a couple of times) that we don't do well in restaurants because of our sweet little one year old fireball of a son. Our pastor has a 9 and 14 year old so I knew he must have been through these days at one point in his life but maybe too many years ago to remember. Well, let me say it was one of the worst experiences we have had with Austin in a restaurant. Yes, I know we had been to church that morning, and we cut his nap short to wake him for a very active birthday party, then to Uncle Phil's to play in the backyard, and yes, then to dinner. What was I thinking...

To begin, Austin sat in his highchair for the first 2 1/2 minutes of us getting seated. Then he wanted to be held by mommy only. He did not want to sit in Daddy's lap. He did not want to color with the 100 crayons I brought. He did not want to play with the sugar packs. Soon our salads came and luckily he does love a salad with ranch so he sat on my lap and tried to eat my salad. A few minutes later I was covered in lettuce and ranch. Cute look! Once he was over the salad he decided he did not want to sit on my lap either. Luckily we had the best seat in the house - right next to the kitchen entrance which he really wanted to try and enter. So the only way I could tame my sweet little Austin was to stand and hold him. I tried my best to polity talk with the pastor's wife while I stood wrestling with Austin. Finally, dinner came and it looked so good and I was really hungry but I just couldn't cut my chicken fried chicken with one hand. Austin played in my mashed potatoes for a few minutes and broke the corn bread into a million pieces on my lap - then he was (completely) finished with his dinner. From there the standing/holding thing turned into screaming and he just wanted to be FREE and RUN and EXPLORE!

So the kids and I hung out in the lobby for the rest of the meal. All the young hostesses up front thought Austin was the cutest thing ever. This is when I came up with the best idea ever! They should have a separate baby sitting room at all restaurants where parents can eat in peace! Wow - isn't that great! I know I am dreaming. Eventually, the pastor's kids joined us in the lobby where they proceeded to eat candy out of the little candy machine - in front my two little ones who I would soon be TRYING to put to bed. How could I say no and let them eat candy right in front of my two begging kids - I know I am weak. Really weak. (Aaron still doesn't know about the candy but that does explain why it took Alivia an hour to go to sleep later than night).

Oh I forgot to mention - to make me look even more like I couldn't control my one year old - there was a little boy that looked exactly Austin's age that sat right behind our table. The little boy sat in his highchair the entire meal, I didn't see him move (not even to turn his head) and I never heard him make a peep. Wow - what a boring meal that family must have had!

And you ask well what about Alivia? She was quite the little lady! Her favorite food in the world (corn on the cob) did manage to slide out of her hands onto the floor but she sweet talked the waitress into one more. I will say Aaron was later very appreciative that I entertained Austin in the lobby (for quite a while) so he could get to know his future golfing buddy more.

Mark my words - we won't be eating out for quite a while... unless it involves chicken nuggets and an indoor playground! :)