Restaurant Regrets

I'm sure by the title you are thinking I'm going to tell you about some awful restaurant service we recently encountered. On the contrary, the service was great...Keegan not so much. :) Last night we decided on a spur of the moment to take the kids out to a local BBQ place near our home. We had been out geocaching in Snohomish, WA (a little town ten minutes away) and we were nearing the dinner hour. We rarely go out to eat and it had been awhile, so we didn't think it was a bad decision to include the kid's. Our kid's behavior at restaurants had been pretty fair to great in the past, but we had no idea what we were getting into last night. The food, service, and speed of service were flawless, but it was the behavior of the kids...no just really Mr. Keegan that sent our heads spinning.

Mr. Keegan has entered the independent, vocal stage of his life and he let us know actually what he thought last night. It was actually quite humorous if it wasn't happening to you...but it was happening to us. Thankfully, Drew and I can laugh when things are not the best situations and by the time we pulled ourselves out of the restaurant and wrestled everyone back into their car seats we couldn't help but catch a glance at each other and laugh. Drew then said, "What was that?"

Let's see...a very strong-willed nearly seventeen month old who decided he didn't want to eat, but throw mashed potatoes everywhere including his mother's hair, crumble corn bread into pieces smaller than dust that he threw on our booth and the booth full of customers behind us, spill milk everywhere cause he insisted holding his own cup while screaming "No, NO, NO, NO" every second with louder excitement because his voice echoed in the small diner. Haleigh! Wow, what fun. Ten minutes into this fun scene I scooped Keegan up and took him outside the rest of the time. It was just too much to expect him to calm down without frustrating everyone in the restaurant and mainly to cool my own jets. Drew then finished his meal and met me outside so I could finish my meal, help Fiona go to the restroom, redirect Fiona to stop asking the waitress if she likes the corn muffins too, clean up the milk she spilled because she insisted on helping the new customers behind her find their "books" (menus). Ten minutes later Drew stepped inside and I directed him to pay the bill so we could leave (RUN...RUN...RUN) and instructed him to leave a BIG tip. Yep, a peaceful dinner.

Personally, I think it maybe awhile before we take the kids out to a restaurant again. So, if you're looking to babysit a few kids so we can enjoy a "peaceful" dinner let me know. We'd be happy not to have restaurant regrets.

From inside the little blue bungalow,
Katie Jean