Adventures in Dining

Jeff's been on vacation all this week and it's been a not-so-pleasant time. Things are a little better today though. So when he found a flyer in the newspaper for a special deal at one of our favorite restaurants and wanted to go there for dinner tonight, I was game.

This takes some preparation though, it's not quite as simple as jumping in the car and going. I breastfeed Lucas, but I'm not willing to do it in public or, in fact, in front of anyone who doesn't live in this house with me. I have to be able to see what I'm doing and I don't really want anyone else seeing it too. Besides that, I need about ten extra hands and/or pillows and I'm really only comfortable in my special spot on my couch.

We get around that little problem by taking expressed breast milk when we go out and Jeff feeds it to him in a bottle. Even that's not as easy as it sounds because he's very fussy about what kind of bottle and nipple he'll take. In fact, we've only found one that he likes.

So I was nursing Lucas right before we were about to leave hoping that he wouldn't require too much feeding while we were trying to eat dinner. I told Jeff to get the diaper bag ready - make sure we had some diapers, the milk, the special bottle (which requires a plastic liner), some formula just in case, etc.

And we're off! We got to the restaurant right at the height of dinner time and we had to wait about half an hour for a table. Jeff had the kids outside while I waited for us to be called inside and everyone was happy. We got our table and we already knew what we wanted since it was the special, so we ordered right away. As we were getting to our table, Lucas was starting to lose it. I was having a little success with the pacifier, but I told Jeff he should work on getting the bottle ready. The milk was still frozen, so he went to the bathroom to run it under hot water and thaw it out (he's a pro at this because he has to do it whenever I go out and leave the kids at home with him). So he came back, poured the milk into the bottle, screwed on the top, took the cover off and..... there was no nipple on the bottle! Oooohhh, good one!

At this point we didn't have any food. I took Lucas out to the van to sit on the floor (all available seats have carseats attached to them) and nurse him. Thank God for air conditioning! It definitely was NOT my comfy spot on the couch, but we managed. When he stopped eating and started grinning and cooing at me, I figured he was done and maybe I could eat my dinner now. So I turned off the car, extracted us from the back and went back into the restaurant.

There was a yummy appetizer there waiting for me. I passed Lucas off to Jeff and tried to eat it as fast as I could. Meanwhile, Lucas went back to being unhappy. Jeff tried the formula we had brought, but it was in pre-filled bottles without the kind of nipple that he likes so that didn't work. By the time our food came, he was really pissed off. I told Jeff to eat and then pack up all my food in a box and call me on my cell phone when the dessert came. I went back out to the van for feeding #2.

Again, he finished and seemed pretty happy, so we went back in AGAIN. I ate about two bites before he started crying again. By this time I was clueing in to the fact that it was probably all the noise and commotion in the restaurant that was bothering him more than being hungry. And it was also getting really close to bedtime. Jeff took him to walk around while I inhaled a little of my dinner.

Then dessert came. I called Jeff on his phone. He came back and ate his dessert standing up and holding Lucas. Then he left to walk him around some more. I ate mine and boxed up the majority of my meal while waiting for the waitress to come take my credit card. I finished and she still wasn't there, so I called Jeff again to come back. I thought he hadn't finished eating, but he had, so I rounded up the kids to go out to the car while he waited for the waitress and gathered up all of our stuff.

On our way out of the restaurant, I asked the kids if they had to use the bathroom. Brendan did. He tried to go into the men's room and wasn't too happy when I wouldn't let him. We had to have a discussion about why he couldn't go in there by himself. So all four of us went into the ladies' room and crammed into a stall. Brendan is too short to pee standing up into a regular toilet, so just like at home, he had to take off his shorts and underwear. Which means he also had to take off his sandals. And be barefoot on the icky floor. Where he dropped his clothes anyway. So he finished and then sat his bare butt on the floor to put his clothes back on even though I told him not to. It looked like I was going to have to help him, but I was holding the baby. Thank heavens for an almost 8 year old! I gave Lucas to Alyssa, helped Brendan get dressed with minimal icky floor touching and then took Lucas back. We went out to the sinks and of course, Brendan couldn't reach the running water. Gave Lucas back to Alyssa, lifted Brendan up to the sink, accomplished hand washing and got out of there. And tried to ignore the fact that Brendan rubbed his freshly cleaned hands all over the grimy garbage can lid.

We peeked back into the restaurant to see if Jeff was still at the table (which means I had to redirect the kids about 20 times on which way to go). He wasn't. So I herded everyone back outside and my phone started ringing. I knew it was Jeff wondering where in the heck we were. We finally got everyone into the car. Almost forgot to buckle Brendan in, but he reminded us just as Jeff was starting the car. And then we came home.

And at some point during that whole adventure, Lucas spit up on me twice and Jeff once. I don't think we'll be trying the whole eating out trick again any time soon.