Baby In A Restaurant

If you are a child-less person or couple (or a Mom and Dad out on a date alone), one of the worst places to go is a family-friendly restaurant. Not like Olive Garden because, really, OG is not a place for babies and kids--too many breakables everywhere. Nothing kills a good dinner like thirty-eight screaming kids throwing their food and running into your chair.

But take Famous Dave's BBQ, which happens to be where we went last night. This place is the epitome of a family-friendly establishment. It has huge long tables, stacks upon stacks of high chairs, and balloons at the entrance. The place screams "We Love Kids! Bring Them!" And so last night, we brought our child to a restaurant. Now this isn't the first time at a restaurant, but this is the first time at an all out, child-infested...errr child-filled restaurant.

Where does the hostess seat us when she sees that we have a baby? In the back room that is already occupied with 22 people, 11 of whom are children. Great. So in we squeezed to our table and the deafening noise of kids yelling consumes my ears. Who decides to join in on it? Nyla. She squealed and squawked the whole time. And to add to her enjoyment, she kept throwing anything she had in her hands onto the floor. I just love spending my dinner evening bending down and picking up toys every three seconds. Really gives me a chance to enjoy my food.

Of course with a baby in a restaurant, that means we have to eat at lightning speed because homegirl has a time limit as to how long she will behave until the banshee monster comes out. For Nyla, she's pretty well maintained until about 34 minutes or so; that's about the time where she squirms uncontrollably until someone is designated to walk around the restaurant with her.

Delicious rice cracker.

To be honest, Nylabear is pretty dang good in public. She laughs at all the people and *knockonwood* doesn't cry. She likes being with everyone and all in the mix. Hopefully Paul and I will become more comfortable in family-friendly restaurants. Chuck-E-Cheese is out forever though. Nothing grosses me out more than the ball pit. All those germs...