Tonight was to be an extra-special date night in which Anna & Tara were going over to some friends’ house for a sleepover. However, one of the kids at Tara’s daycare came down with hand-foot-and-mouth disease, which is pretty ugly, so in the event that Tara was incubating these nasty germs, we canceled. That kind of misery definitely does NOT love company.

Anna was super-stoked to be going over to her friends house, and as I picked her up from preschool, she and her friend could talk about nothing but the impending sleepover. I realized that if I broke the news before getting her into the car, there would be a scene of epic proportions. I waited until we were packed into the car and buckled into our respective seats. Note to self: move Anna’s booster seat to the passenger side of the car.

As a means of softening the blow, we went out to dinner at a restaurant, which is one of Anna’s favorite things to do. As the chef in our home, I don’t take this personally, because Anna is just as finicky at a restaurant as she is at home. We decided on Outback Steakhouse, which is not at all crowded when you arrive at 4:35pm.

Anna and I sat and ordered and played Tic-Tac-Toe on the kids’ menu, while Jennifer picked up Anna and brought her some twenty minutes later. Tara could hardly decide whether to eat or flirt with passersby. Eventually she came down on the side of flirting, while I popped food into her mouth. She ate mostly macaroni; occasionally I would sneak in a vegetable or some other food that didn’t agree with her and most of the time she would make sour face and begin rolling her tongue around her open mouth until the offending food was rejected. Tara did enjoy the music, occasionally wiggling back and forth or drumming on the table. Eventually our food and Anna’s patience ran out, and Tara and I went home for bed while Anna and Jen went out for ice cream.