Dressed up and Eating out.

We took the kids out for the monthly dinner at a restaurant. It was for November. We couldn't wait, especially since paydays are bi-weekly not monthly and October had a third payday.

The theory is if you take the kids out to places where they need to behave they can learn to behave for those places.

Like most theories they sound reasonable until they hit the lab. And the lab in this case is a public place where you pay to have food given to your children so they can not eat it.

It was special though, for last night we went to a restaurant run by an old school friend of mine. Actually she's not old, nor is she 'old school'. Let me try again.

The restaurant is owned by a friend. The girls like my friend and this time brought pictures they drew just for her. They sure know how to work the scene.

This time I started trying to train my older daughter. I tried to teach her the art of conversation. I pointed out the basic ground rules. As far as I understand they are ask the other person 2 more questions beyond what you care to know about them.

Eagerly the child looked at me and asked "What is your name?".

I explained we weren't playing dungeons and dragons and there would be no mountain dew involved and I wasn't on a quest for the most Holy of Grails either.

She then went on to ask what I did. I stopped her again and pointed out she should ask things she really didn't know. Then I gave the example of "What did you do today?"

She parroted the question. I answered. She then followed the rules and asked another question: "What is your name?"

SIGH

Meanwhile my younger daughter was showing off a fibre-optic garnished skull flashlight. She was so exuberant that she nearly stabbed the waitress in the eye with it. After that was confiscated she entered a 'blue period' and drew on anything to give to the owner. Then she tried to have a chug-alug contest with her apple juice. Then she decided she wanted to visit the bathroom every two minutes but not use it.

My older daughter had since taken such a liking to the bread and dip that she ate most it. We ordered more and she ate half of that portion. Then she proceeded to eat all her food and finish off her desert as well. I've only seen small mammals eat that proportion of their body weight before hibernation.

In the end they did fairly well. They both sent their compliments to the chef which was impressive. The younger one actually spoke out loud to the waitress, even calling her back to ask for some water.

We still haven't figured out why the younger one has an allergic reaction to chairs, but she gets the squirms really bad when she's at the table.

I should explain that I mean she can't sit still and that she does not have gastral difficulty.

So we will keep taking them to nice places in hope that it will rub off on them. It's a bit like leading a horse to water except the horse wouldn't make that much noise drinking from a straw.