The C family had big fun plans tonight to go as a family, for the first time, to Daddy's softball game. All year so far, he has only had games at 7:30 and 8:45, which are both too late for Isabel's bedtime. Tonight, the game was at 6:15, so all day I was getting Isabel all excited about it. I told her that when she woke up from her nap, we would get to go out to dinner as a family and then to Daddy's baseball game! She was very much looking forward to this. She always likes seeing Daddy in his "bay-ball shirt" (Hosanna! softball jersey) before he leaves for his games. So, when we found out the game got rained out, it fell to Luke to break the news to her. The conversation went something like this when he went up to her room after her nap:
Luke: "Isabel, remember how Mommy said we get to go to a baseball game today?"
(A lightbulb went on in Isabel's head as she remembered what our plans were for the evening. She looked at Luke, then looked at Luke's shirt which was a gray T-shirt and not his softball jersey. Looked back at Luke, then back in confusion at the shirt.)
Isabel: "This your bay-ball shirt, Daddy?"
Luke (sadly): "No, Daddy's baseball game got cancelled because of the rain."
Isabel: "You play bay-ball, Daddy?"
Luke: "Not tonight. You can come to Daddy's game next week!"
Since we had already had plans to go out, we decided to go out to dinner as a family (a risky endeavor with kids our age, but we thought we would give it a shot). But something or someone seemed to be out to get us this evening. After the 45-minute ritual of trying to get out the door, we arrived at Buca di Beppo in Burnsville at about 6:15 pm. We got there and carried both kids inside, only to discover they were on a 20 minute wait (too long in our opinion with the kids and not a very large waiting area). Much to Isabel's chagrin, we packed them back in the car and decided where close by we could go instead. We headed over to Chili's (meanwhile, Isabel is screaming "I wanna go to Buca!" repeatedly in the backseat). Noticing the full parking lot, this time we decided it would be wisest if I ran in alone to check on the wait. I waited 5 minutes in a hostess-less lobby, to be told that they were also on a 15-minute wait. I went back out to the car (Isabel still semi-upset and getting hungrier by the minute) and after debating what to do, we decided to head back to Chili's in Eagan, figuring that by the time we got there, the dinner rush would be over and we could get seated. But, we were going to do call-ahead seating just in case. I called Google 411 from my cell phone and tried to get connected, but kept getting connected to a random man's voice mail when it said it was connecting me to Chili's! Argh!
As we had hoped, there was no wait at the Eagan Chili's, and we ordered our food the second the server got over to the table. At the hostess's suggestion, Isabel was given a booster seat instead of a highchair, which made for an interesting dinner experience, but even with that and two trips to the potty during dinner, we managed to all eat hot food and avert any major disasters (other than the server refilling my Sprite with a pitcher of water, then promising me a new Sprite which she forgot to bring until we had paid our bill). Josiah, true to form, just sat in his car seat contentedly from beginning to end of our "relaxing" (LOL) night out. I think a crying baby on top of everything else would have sent me hurtling over the edge, so thank you, Josiah!
Sometimes, you just have to laugh, or you will cry.
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