Dining Out In Our New World....

Oh my...where do I even start with this post? I know that most parents out there can completely understand where I am coming from with this one. :)

So...I guess you just reach a stage where you can no longer take your baby out to eat with you anymore b.c it is simply just not fun. :) At 7 months, I think we are there. HA!! :)

Something happened when little B entered the 2nd half of his first year of life this past weekend...and eating out just seemed to turn into a disaster. We tried it on Sunday night after the Wildflower Center and boy was that a mistake! Up until now, things have been pretty good at restuarants for the most part. Well, that was short lived. :)

We headed over to BJ's Brewery for a quick dinner. Even though the entire dinner was not more than an hour, it was a very long, crazy hour. :) We started out with Braden deciding that he was annoyed that we even thought about coming to eat. How dare we, right? So he proceeded to be very vocal from the MOMENT that we were seated. I can only imagine how every other patron around us was praying for us to leave soon. Oh, you know the family. Sheesh!! That was us! But by that point we had already committed to eating, and we were stinkin hungry..so he was going to have to chill out!

I put him in his highchair where he lasted for about 5.2 seconds with some toys. Then he decided it was very important that he got out of the highchair!! So I sat him on my lap, on the table, or pretty much anywhere that I could. In a few short minutes he proceeded to knock over my entire glass of water which was ice cold. It not only DRENCHED me but it also coated him with an ice cold treat....which is when he decided it would be fun to cry about being soaked with cold water. :( After every member of the waitstaff in the entire restuarant had come to help us clean up the mess (and our next door neighbors behind us had already asked if we needed more napkins)...we were off to try and enjoy our meal again. Throughout the remainder of the time that we waited for our food, Braden decided it would be fun to throw every toy and spoon that he could get his hands on. Sorry again neighbors!!

Then he thought it would be fun to chew on a straw. As he jabbed himself in the top of the mouth a few times with that, and he shed some more tears, he finally learned his lesson. Slow learner is what I was thinking! :)

I ate while holding him...which lasted all of about 5 minutes before he wanted to grab all of my food too. So Chris took him and walked him around the lobby for awhile (glad we came to eat together, right?) :) I shoved my food in my mouth faster than I ever have before...so that Chris would not waste away while he was patiently waiting! I motioned for him to come back and join me at my solo dinner...and we made the switch. He ate alone next....fun times, eh? :)

And last but not least we put Braden back in the highchair for his turn at eating. We served up some good old carrot and green bean purees (yum!!)...and he ate them as well as he could while also getting orange and green excess everywhere. Oh you gotta love it! I saw the table behind us (young couple on probably their first date) staring at him covered in various colors. I had to apologize to them as I am sure that sight ruined their meal. :) Baby food does not ever look appetizing...especially coming out of a baby's mouth over and over again. :(

FINALLY the check could not have come sooner, as we were both like "GET ME OUT OF HERE!!" We paid, put away the 15 things that we have to bring into an eating establishment with a 7 month old, and high tailed it out of there!! All the while wondering why we just spent $35 on that!

So after that experience, I am pretty sure we are turning a corner regarding our ability to eat out much anymore with the little munchkin!! And I am not sure I will try it too many more times. It is that whole deal about continuing to do the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. :)

So bring on date nights with my hubby...child free of course!! :) Cannot wait! :)