Puzzles, Puddles, and Dinner with the Animals

I'm pretty sure that if Ben had any concept of time he would long for Fridays. It has got to be his favorite day. Because of a little glitch in childcare, Matt goes into work late and watches B Friday mornings, my mom takes him for the afternoons, and I get him in the evenings. All three of us get a few hours of quality alone time with our favorite little man, and he gets a few hours of quality alone time with us. And we all take him on dates. So basically he gets to go out to breakfast with Daddy, out to lunch with Nana, and out to dinner with Mommy. Except that lately I think that the first 2/3 of Friday is his favorite. He spends that last third having peanut butter toast for dinner and playing by himself while Mommy alternately lies half dead on the couch and barfs in his bathroom. Well, today I was feeling good, so we had our Friday date night. Nana got him a couple of new puzzles today, so he worked on those for a while. Eventually I finally convinced him to abandon the puzzle that was frustrating him to pieces so we could go to dinner. He asked for "Dinner with the Animals" (Rain Forest Cafe). Let's be clear, here: I do not like Rain Forest Cafe. The food is overpriced and not very good, it's super loud and annoying, the service is marginal at best, and Ben loves it. So occasionally (like the very rarely kind of occasionally) I take one for the team and we have Dinner with the Animals. Since I haven't really been Mother of the Year lately, I figured this was my chance to get in good with the Little. So he put on his boots (it was sprinkling) and coat and we set off. He really wanted to stomp in the puddles, so I let him have at it. Man, does this kid love puddles.

So eventually it started pouring and I was getting hungry. But he really really did not want to be done. I had to carry him to the car like the whiny little baby he was being. Oy. Two. So I loaded him into the car soaking wet and set off for the mall. If I had any sense at all I would have just quit while I was ahead, gone inside, made some toast and hot chocolate, and done puzzles in comfy pants. But I'm an idiot, so I forged on ahead with the Dinner with the Animals plan. I got to the light, realized I was an adult and could easily turn around if I so chose, and then I did it. I made a u-turn and went back home. When we pulled up to the house, he started crying and begging for Dinner with the Animals. I'm such a sucker. So we made another u-turn and went to the mall. Dinner sucked, obviously, but we had fun with each other. Then we played in the mall for a bit and went home. After dinner he shook my hand and said, "thank you for coming with me." (?!?!?!?! Where does he get this stuff?!?!?!)

The End.