Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Going out to eat with a baby

Though we try to cook atleast 5 nights a week, we are foodies and love going out! Sienna never makes these outings a breeze and its actually become more of a chore rather than a luxury to go out these days. 

It goes something like this:
  •   walk in, look around and pray there is no wait. Tell the hostess "two and a highchair, please" or as Danny likes to say "two & a half"
  • sit down, hand Sienna a menu & crayons while we settle in. She plays with them for a minute then throws them on the floor and points because she wants them back. We don't give them back because we know exactly what she'll do.
  • waiter comes, we order our usual drinks: waters with lemon. I hand Sienna her sippy cup so she doesn't get jealous when we get our drinks. ( note to all waiters of the world: never put a glass in front of a baby, EVER! or plates) I learned this the hard way the first day I was a waitress. We encourage her to drink from her cup, she throws it on the floor.
  • We order or food, quickly and start entertaining the princess. Snacks, fruit pouches, drink coasters...whatever non breakable item I can find on the table. Husband & I attempt to converse so its somewhat of a date


  • Sienna decides to practice her joyful scream. Its like shes having a contest with herself  with how loud she can scream. We try to distract her, shushing her but it only causes her to try and break her personal screech record even more. Other moms give us empathetic smiles, some laugh, some stare. People of the world with no kids, please give us a break on this one. You will be here too one day when (and if) you have kids & you'll hope people are patient and don't give you a side-eye. And I promise I will be the mom giving the empathetic smile.
  • By now Sienna makes it known shes over every snack we brought her, puffs are on the floor, blueberries are smushed all over the highchair. We look at the time and wonder why our food is taking an eternity even when its only been 10 mins.
  • Our food arrives! YES! we immediately start cutting up whatever we ordered so she can start chowing down, if she approves that is. If not it will end up on the floor with the rest of her snacks. 
  • We eat our food fast as we know she wont last too much longer in the high chair & we stare our waiter down to bring us the check
  • we have our card ready and hand it right to the waiter as they bring the check. We get all things together, pick up some chunks of food off the floor and torture wipe Sienna's face off & hit the road!

OKAY, so its not always this bad but for the most part its a challenge to have a nice dinner out. I think we are beginning to accept the fact that going out is going to  have to be a get-a-babysitter-first type of occasion, which means we'll be getting more take out because we don't like leaving her often.

If you're reading this & have a toddler that is an angel during dinner & does none of the things listed above, then please leave a comment RIGHT THIS INSTANT and tell me your magic tricks and if your kid is just a perfect angel during dinner please dont tell me about it! in fact, nod your head and pretend you have an extremely strong willed, super active child to make me feel a little better. THANKS! Bon appetit.

12 comments:

  1. Our little guy is 2 months old and usually sleeps through meals out BUT we had a terrible experience in Target this week. I fed him then we left to run errands but by the time we got to Target he was MAD and not wanting to sleep. I tried to soothe him, took him out of the carseat, bounced him around in my arms in the dollar isle and showed him all the colors- nothing worked. Some moms stared and gave ugly looks but most were empathetic. I think we've all been there at some point or another! We had to leave but we went home and napped and returned later for a very successful hopping trip so u just never know what is going through their little minds!

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    1. oh man I hope he continues to be good for you, at 2 months Sienna slept through everything too now...forget it, Target trips require us giving her random objects to keep busy!

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  3. Hunter is pretty good when we go out so long as he has a constant stream of food within reach to help distract him. But he will also throw food or toys on the floor and I'm always in stressed rush to get out of there despite his good behavior. I find it easier to go out with a larger group so he has more people to help distract him rather than just me and my husband.

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  4. I would have written this post. We are getting to the point where we do take out instead of staying at the restaurant. Aubrey hates the highchair and only wants to sit on my lap and she would rather run around like a crazy woman, so we try to avoid restaurants right now.

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  5. my little guy always slaps things on to the floor lol!!

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  6. Hey! I follow you on instagram! [mh_hoover]

    Im not gonna say my little man is always an angel when we go out to eat. We do the same thing [hand him non-breakable items to entertain him] He mostly is really good but a few times restless and doesnt want to sit in the high chair.

    But! there is something that does work! [for my little man that is, not every child is the same lol] and I know you dont let Sienna watch TV much but i bought a couple episodes of his favorites shows like Mickey or bubble guppies on my iphone and it works a charm. Enough for us to eat and talk. He will even eat and drink out of his sippy while he watches it.

    Just an idea :)

    hope you find something that works!

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  7. Oh mama the older the worst, my son use to be calm when we would go out to eat of course he would get tired of sitting in the high chair for more than an hour but for a good hour he was great as long as we kept him busy, snacks, unbrakeable items in the table, cellphones (even though we said we would never let him borrow lol) ever since he started walking he will sit a couple of minutes then starts screaming and will want to get down and explore, he's a nosy little guy and loves to stare at everyone especially the weird ones haha sorry but yes. So just keep in mind the older they get the worst it'll be.

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  8. Ha! I can totall relate to this post, I don't think it gets easier to take them out to eat until they are 4...we still have 2 more years of ordering take out...ha! This post reminded me of a very smiliar one I posted about our out to dinner experience...
    http://hfamilyjourney.blogspot.com/2011/09/eating-out-will-never-be-same.html

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  9. Wow, I don't have kids yet- but thanks for giving me honest feedback of what we have to look forward too!

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  10. Toddlerdom doesn't get much better. With 2 kids, we have constant fighting over what crayon color the other one has. Mady did the "look how loud I can shriek Mommy! Isn't my voice fabulous at this pitch?" game at Sienna's age as well. Now that she's older, we shoot her The Look, and quietly ask if she needs an attitude adjustment. She pipes down pretty quickly. Started doing that around 18 months old. We also loaded up the diaper bag with restaurant-appropriate toys (toy keys, stuffed animal, foam books, etc) and prayed that worked!

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  11. iPad!!' If ever there is a time to bribe your child with a tv show or movie, this is it. Buys us at least 30 minutes while out and if lucky a little longer. Games and other apps are a bonus. We don't leave home without this!!!

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Your sweet words always make my day! :) Thank you.