Craving a Burger

For some reason, there are nights when, although I have dinner planned and thawed out, I let my desire for a burger take over all thought and reason and we hop in the car and go for it.
I almost always regret it.
Tonight was most definitely one of those nights. It's technically Mr. Man's weekend, and I had a real hankering for a burger, so the family hopped in the car and took off.
Mistake #1.
Mr. Man and I have constant "battles" if you will, about who has to decided something, i.e., who's going to walk in front of the other and pick a seat at church, who is going to choose what movie to watch, and who is going to pick the restaurant. We had one of those battles this evening and somehow landed on the decision to try a sports bar we've never been to. I wanted a burger, Mr wanted wings, we knew we could probably land the girls a hot dog, win, win, win, right?
Mistake #2 (Hint, just because a place claims to be family friendly and has balloons and crowns and pretty things to prove it, doesn't mean they are. Just so ya know)
We entered the restaurant and thought we'd eat on the patio to take advantage of the nice weather.
Mistake #3
A very nice lady gave the girls balloons to tie to their wrists before we headed to the table.
Boy oh boy MISTAKE #4
Mr. Man and Little Miss followed the hostess straight back to the patio while Fo and I s-l-o-w-l-y followed behind. The precious girl was so taken with her balloon she couldn't even concentrate. That, and every waitress that walked by made a huge fuss over how cute she is. (Ok, I'm so sorry about my pride here, but that just GETS me, ya know? When people gush over your kid it's so hard to not hold your head high and say, "Yeah, I know. She's cute. And I got another up there and another on the way. I am surrounded by cuteness thankyouverymuch!" Lord, forgive my pride, they are Your Creation, not mine). When we finally made it to the door, we had a bit of a hard time squeezing through since our hostess, who was holding the door for us and balancing a high chair, was in deep conversation (the kind that makes you want to whip out the ice cream and listen in because you know the gossip is Juicy!) with a waitress. Between Fo, her balloon and my belly (picture shown below to emphasize point) we were having a hard time getting by. Our arrival at the patio ended the juicy conversation and the door slammed behind us...right on Fo's balloon. It disappeared inside, never to be seen again. Poor Fo, throughout dinner she would stare longingly at the door...ok, so only until her food arrived. Then she was over it.
Little Miss, on the other hand, still had her balloon tied securely around her wrist and was quite happy about it...until the balloon began to be whipped around a bit by the wind.
Remember how the patio and balloon decisions were mistakes?
Oh my. I've never seen such terror on my girl's face. Such desperate terror that Mr and I couldn't even get a handle on what was wrong before the waitress came to take our orders, so LM gave up her babble on us and immediately asked the waitress to take the balloon back inside.
Instead the cheerful blond tied it to her chair and sauntered away like she was the hero.
Not so much. LM ended up in my lap, then Mr's and began to beg to go inside, then go home, then to get rid of the balloon. She was in such a panic. I kept asking if she wanted me to let the balloon go, and that seemed to scare her more.
Mistake #5 - Don't ask a toddler what to do. Just do the grown up thing and make the call.
Eventually I reached over, grabbed the balloon and let it go.
The look of pure relief/terror/joy/fear on Little Miss' face was priceless. She watched it fly away and had such an emotional outburst of laughter and tears I thought she just might faint. Blondie returned with our drinks and Little Miss immediately exclaimed:
"My Mommy let the balloon go!!!" through her happy sobs.
Since only Mr and I could tell they were happy sobs, Blondie gave me the death stare. I wanted to crawl under the table.
You know, if I could have fit.
Our food took a while, so I took Fo out of the high chair and let her walk around a bit. When I saw the waitress returning with our dinner, I scooped Fo up and held her on my tummy while the waitress stepped around us.
Blondie stepped right in front of Fo's chair and I couldn't quite get around her to mine. I decided to stand back and politely wait until she set our food down.
Mistake #6
Blondie stayed a while and decided to chat it up with my husband while Fo squirmed all over me trying to get to her dinner. If it's something she likes, man oh man, you do not deny this girl food!
Eventually Blondie left, Fo go her food and we got down to buisness: eat quick and get the heck out.
Mr Man did mention a little later what the waitress was so chatty about. Here is how the conversation went:
Her: Wow. You guys have your hands full.
Him: Yup, we sure do.
Her: Wow. I don't envy you. At All.
Him: Silence with lots of not nice names going through his head.
I look back on our evening and realize all could have been avoided if I would have just denied myself that silly burger craving.
And all I can think as I sit here and type is: Man, I could really go for some chocolate right now!