Potential disaster averted by a toddler-sized window, F&C Blue No. 1 ,and a shot glass

I was in the park before 6 am to work out with a Boot Camp instructor who recently moved to the neighborhood. It was already hot & humid. I went to work and spent all day on a difficult and tedious piece of legal writing while it was getting hotter and more humid. Daddy went to a soccer game with Mama's Lawyer. I was looking for a low-tot-supervision kind of evening. Secondarily, I didn't want to go anywhere near the holiday traffic.

I had heard about a new kid-friendly restaurant that was supposed to be fabulous. Moms are raving about it. I thought maybe I'd read a chapter or two of my book while they played happily. I sold Moolah. It would be new and really fun. We drove across town through Blues Festival traffic. Moolah kept her spirits up the whole way, looking for boats, watching for lights to turn green.

We found our destination. Hooray! It had cold white chairs and stainless steel tables. A couple of orange beanbags. No kids. No people for that matter, except the guy fixing a curtain. No toys. This was not the tot-enticing wonderland that I was looking for. Moolah said "This is not the new restaurant. I thought we were going to the new restaurant." This was not a time for social graces. I thanked the guy fixing the curtain and we left.

I put on my happy face and said "We tried something new, and we learned something. So, what else would be fun?" But, she wanted to go waaaaay across town to the last very kid-friendly-fun-with-a-wonderful-playroom restaurant we visited. Ace was melting down. Traffic was terrible. There was no way. She thought. And thought. She said "I'm still thinking.... I know, how about another new restaurant with lots of fun toys?" I wished.

We were only a few blocks from my office. Maybe I got the name of the place wrong. Maybe there is actually a new fun restaurant with lots of toys. I took the kids to my office and got on the computer. They played with the toys in the waiting room. No luck, though.

"What if we went to a restaurant with no toys but we got ice cream afterward?" Yes, that would do. I grabbed my purse, chased Ace and a school bus down the hall, and told Moolah to shut the inner door behind her --- one second before I remembered that my keys were on my desk. At 6:30 on the day before a holiday, there was no one with keys within miles of the office. There is a reception window. I might be able to fit through.... but, Moolah fit through easily. She had to be coaxed into it, but she made it down off the desk and into the mail bucket (she would want me to include that detail because it was the best part for her). I knocked on the door so that she could find it and open it. Relief... we were free! But, we still didn't have a destination.

I asked what she wanted to eat. We decided on spaghetti. I could do that. I headed towards a mall surrounded by several restaurants, including an "Old Spaghetti Factory" and two other chain restaurants that Moolah has liked in the past. I gave her a choice. The one with the red bird and freckled lemonade. The one with blue juice. The new spaghetti place. Blue juice won (no wonder she didn't choose another new place). She and Ace ate Mac & Cheese. She drank blue juice. She danced. Things were looking up.

To seal the deal, I told her we could go get ice cream, or we could have dessert in Moolah-sized glasses. That was intriguing. We ordered the new shot-glass desserts. I even sprang for the combo of 3. She chose chocolate brownie and caramel apple. I added strawberry cheesecake. She thought that was really fun. Ace wanted more, more, more.

All was well. All kids were also asleep not long after our return home.