Mother & Daughter Dinner

Never again. Well, maybe never is too harsh of a word. How about - not for a really long time. I'm talking about going to a sit down restaurant with just myself and Lauren. I took Lauren to meet my parents tonight so she could spend the weekend with them. On the way we stopped in Fairview Heights to eat at Logan's Roadhouse (my favorite steak place). She was fun and happy in the car on the way over but turned into a little terror when we were seated inside.

Lauren doesn't like to sit in a high chair anymore so we tend to put her in booster seats. The only problem with that is that she will not sit still. We colored on the menu they gave us and we read the books in her bag (all of which took about 5 minutes). After that, she was EVERYWHERE. She tried to climb up the wall, she tried to stand on the table. She wanted to get down on the floor. She wanted to get under the table. She knocked her head against the back of the bench 3 times trying to get away from me. AHHHH!!!! We had a great waitress who got our food to us very quickly. Did this slow Lauren down? No! She tried to stand on her plate of food while it was on the table. I ate my dinner so fast I felt like I was inhaling it. It's nice when both Joe and I take her to dinner because we can take turns entertaining her. By the time we left, food was all over her mouth and all over my clothes.

Finally we met up with Grandma and Paw Paw. She was so excited to see them. Once she was strapped into the car seat in their car she looked at me, waved and said "bye-bye". She was ready to go with no looking back. I shed a few tears because this is the first time she has been away from both her dad and I for more than a day.

Lauren is now going to be at her grandparents' house until Sunday. I will be back then. Happy Labor Day!!