Out to Lunch

We made some last minute plans today to bring my Mom to a couple of her appointments and found ourselves out and about at lunchtime. I wasn't sure how to handle it, but I wanted to go to Front Row Pizza since my Mom was in the same shopping center getting her hair down.

We perused the front of the store and discovered they had one single door. That meant that the jog stroller (which was what we had with us) would not fit in the door. Normally I would have strapped them into their stroller and brought them in, then transferred them from directly from their 5-point restraint to the highchair with the lap belt.

Struck by a sudden feeling of daring and independence (not to mention the memory of how good Front Row's chicken tenders taste!) I unloaded the kids, told Liliana she was in charge of Faith, and WALKED FROM THE VAN INTO THE RESTAURANT HOLDING THE KIDS' HANDS! Then, we found a table, and THEY ALL SAT DOWN.

Now, it could be that they were hungry, and I told them we would have pizza. But honestly I was amazed and so excited. They only had two high chairs, which Joe and Faith happily climbed into. Eve sat in a regular seat. They sat there patiently while I filled cups with lemonade and got them ready to eat. They smiled and ate, and I basked in the compliments from other patrons.

"Wow, I only have two kids with me and you're doing better than I am!"

"Those are the four best behaved kids I've ever seen!"

"Are they all yours?" (Yes) "God Bless you!" (He has.)

When they were done eating we made a quick exit, and aside from Joe and Eve getting confused about which side of the van we were going to (causing a toddler pile up and one skinned knee), we got in with minimal fuss.

Wow. My children are growing up!