The Dinner

It was inevitable. I knew the moment would have to come one of these days. Today was that day. We had to leave a restaurant because of the little man. Now, in all fairness to Colin, this was my fault. Colin took an extra long morning nap for some reason today and thus refused to nap this afternoon. That meant that by the time Jer and I took Colin out to dinner, he had been awake for 6 hours straight, which is a long time for this kiddo. He was entering the land of tiredness before we left the house, but still I persisted. We had a coupon for a local place close by and it was close to expiring, and it was for a free entree and since we are on a budget these days, I just had to take advantage of the chance to eat out. Yes, it is totally my fault, but can't you see the draw?!? :-)

Anyway, as soon as we walked in the door, I knew we had made a huge mistake. It took the hostess about 3 minutes to get us to a table and in that time Colin had already started kicking to be let loose out of Jer's arms. He has never done that before and I was worried. We sat down and Colin was okay for about 10 minutes. Then as he started to spiral down, the server brought out the salads and cornbread. "Saved!", I thought to myself. Colin ate my whole tomato (this is his new thing these days...he loves tomatoes) and some cornbread. I literally inhaled my salad just in case. That was smart because he started to cry once he ate all the tomato and tired of the cornbread. I don't know how he is my child sometimes...I could eat bread until I passed out, but Colin never wants any. I picked him up and walked him around the lobby, hoping on top of hoping that his lovely golden chicken fingers would show up soon and take him out of his funk. I walked back to the table once he started trying to kick out of my arms and tried to put him back in his high chair. He refused to bend his knees and started to turn red. Oh no. Jer tried to take him at this point and that was the wrong move...he arched his back in one of the best temper displays I have ever been privy to and literally almost catapulted himself out of Jer's hands. He was now officially screaming. Yep, you guessed it. Time to go. I took Colin to the car while Jer had the server box up our food and paid the bill. And of course, as soon as he got strapped into his comfy seat and I turned on his favorite episode of "Go, Diego, Go!", he was back to his happy self. Good grief. Is it wrong that I wish there were DVD players on the chairs in restaurants? Just kidding. Kind of.

As we were driving home with our yummy food (which was even better at home, I think!) Jer noted that he had never seen another family leave like that when their baby started to have a tantrum. I thought about it and realized that I actually haven't either. We then chatted about how in our experience, most folks just stay and let the kid freak out while other diners are forced to talk over a screaming baby. Jer and I have experienced it countless times, which is probably why I am so sensitive about disturbing others. I don't mind it when he is a little too loud while happily playing in his seat, but if he starts to cry and I can't comfort him immediately, I always jump up and take him out of the room. I just don't want to disturb others trying to enjoy their food! I am wondering if I am being irrational and too hung up on it. Should I have let him cry until we got our food? Would anyone else have packed up and left like I did? I was not upset at all that we had to leave, but I suppose we could have stayed and ridden out the storm. I practically start to have a panic attack when Colin seems ready to make a scene. I would love to hear how everyone handles that situation. Am I crazy?

My worn out little man was so tired that he cried himself to sleep tonight, which he hardly ever does. Poor baby! I put him down early, so he should feel much better in the morning. I am sorry that Jer has to go back to work tomorrow! We have had a great weekend!