We spend a lot of time at the beach parks. Luckily for us, parents are very generous with their children's toys. Lulu found this oversized Swiss Army Knife in the sand and walked around with it for awhile. She looked kind of hard core. The plastic pocket knife made the other parents do double takes. When they realized it was fake, they wondered aloud, "Who would give their kid a toy like that?" I thought the same thing initially but then was happy to explain to her what each tool was used for. It'll be a little while longer before she gets to handle the real thing, but it can't be so bad to get to play with a practice version first, right?!
Outfit: Old Navy body suit and Cherokee infant boys cargo shorts.
People with children love to share their kid-related horror stories with you. One of the most popular anecdotes is a tale of two adults who are no longer able to dine out at a restaurant in peace ever again. Or at least for a long time. Or that they can only do so without their child present. So they give up and eat at home and make up excuses for why they can't join friends for lunch anymore. The end. I know. The horror. The horror!
There's the other restaurant tale where the parents go out with their kids and they're crazy little monsters; disrupting other paying customers meal times. But that's another post for another day. This post is about how you should ignore all these stories and go out and enjoy your meal with your toddler in tow. Practice makes perfect... or at least bearable!
I'm not sure how these food-related legends started. But they're quite popular. While out dining, several parent-friends have said to me, "Enjoy this meal now, soon you won't be able to eat out anymore." And I believed them. But now that Lulu's nearly 16 months old and still happy to dine out, we're just going to ignore all the restaurant-related horror stories. Before you start, "but... but... butting" me with, "Wait until she's two years old," let me add that people told us this bad restaurant behavior would start at six months, nine months, one year, and so on and so on and since the shoe hasn't dropped, we're just going to move on and take the stories for food folklore and nothing else.
Lulu loves routine. So we've set up a restaurant routine that seems to work really well for us. I'm going to break it down for you, and hope that maybe you'll be able to replicate this process and find similar success. Here we go,
1. Pick a child-friendly restaurant. Who's child friendly? Usually a restaurant with a high chair qualifies. Also a place that's not too white linen and where crayons might be offered, unsolicited is a good sign. That said, not every place offers high chairs or booster seats and they're perfectly fine for families. By the way, if a restaurant doesn't have kid-seating, be prepared with something like a TotSeat (we always travel with ours). Make reservations if you can or at least know how long the average wait is where you're going. Truthfully, we rarely know if a new restaurant is child-friendly before we show up so we just come prepared.
2. Pack a sippy cup, bottle, or cup for your kid to drink out of (they can also drink out of a plastic cup with straw if they're advanced enough for that). Pack some snacks. Try to make them "special" snacks, not the run-of-the-mill "stuff they eat at home all the time" treat.
3. Upon being seated, strap your kid into the high chair. It's really important this chair has a buckle that works because sometimes they will try to stand up in the chair. And when they do, people start to freak out, even if you're calm. Pull your kid right up to the table and give them a menu to look at. I know this sounds crazy, but Lulu likes to act like us and even if she is actually sucking on the menu instead of reading it, she's engaged with us and a happy camper.
4. Don't take too long to order. The secret to a good dinner is to get the food out fairly quickly to the table. Place your order and dole out a few snacks to your squirmy kid. If you are a friend without spawn who's dining with someone with spawn, please consider finding something on the menu rather quickly. Hey parent, play the "Guess which hand is hiding the Scooby snack?" game with your kid and that will not only entertain and feed your toddler but it also helps kill time.
6. At some point, your child will tire of your offered treats. At that moment, offer what bread may be on the table. If there isn't any, ask for some. Lulu loves restaurant bread -- French, ciabatta, sticks, rolls... she loves them all! Eating some bread usually keeps her occupied until the entree arrives.
7. Et voila. The main dish is here! At this point, start cutting up food for your kid and feed them everything and anything you're eating. We tell Lulu what she's eating and she eats directly on the table (no plates for throwing). She's usually so preoccupied feeding herself that she stays pretty quiet during this portion of the meal. Before you realize it, the meal is finished, everybody's stuffed and you were able to dine with friends, civilly.
8. Lastly, when the meal is over, one of us will get up and let Lulu explore the restaurant or outside (where she is not bothering customers) and allow the other spouse to pay the bill or enjoy a coffee or dessert. Asking a kid to sit "still" for an hour is a long time (you're an adult and I'm sure it's hard for you too) so take turns being the "chaser". It's really no big deal considering you both got to enjoy a meal out!
For the most part, every restaurant adventure resembles the schedule above. And for the most part, every meal is enjoyable. If you can eat without someone having a melt down (this includes the parents), mos def count it as a success!
It should be noted that less than a handful of times, Lulu was not interested in breaking bread with us. This has happened a couple of times during dinner time, after we've skipped her late afternoon nap or overbooked ourselves for the day and dragged her along. The solution is to try not to cram too much on a meal date day, especially if it's a dinner date.
Good luck, heed no restaurant horror stories, go out and enjoy yourselves, let me know how it goes, and bon appetit!
Okay, so it's not as good as her Uncle Emil's ghillie suit, but check out Lulu's camouflage!
Outfit: Baby Gap hat and Jaxxwear short sleeve hoodie and capri leggings.
While hanging out at a friend's son's birthday party, Lulu decided to take her plate of food, carry it to a child-sized picnic table and sit down and eat... with her spoon. Several parents asked how old she was (15.5 months) and remarked at how skilled she was at feeding herself. Two 17-month old boy twins joined her at the table and hungrily ate their food with their fingers. The parents jokingly lamented that they had little animals and I responded that they were adorable (they were) and on track developmentally... who cares, especially if they're happily eating, right?!
Lulu's been feeding herself for a long time. She's gotten pretty good at it too. We encourage her to use utensils if there are any, but absolutely aren't bothered if she wants to eat with her fingers too. Her French father, who has spectacular table manners, and I are very proud of her progress! I only wished that she would slow down sometimes. It's scary how fast she's turning into a "big" kid.
RELATED: Bottoms Up! and Seven Months and Self Feeding
Does Lulu know something I don't know?! Is this frog like the Blarney Stone of Beverly Hills where thousands of stranger lips have touched it? What can I say, she's half French! The kid obviously understood this thing was family!
Outfit: Tea Collection sleeveless hoodie, Circo long sleeve shirt, DPAM tights, adidas Kids Originals Superstar 2.0
I'm proud to announce that Lulu's first French word is "caca" AKA poo poo AKA dookie AKA meadow muffin. And I'm not surprised. We've been reading "Tous Les Cacas" to her since she was born. It was a book I found in Paris and instantly fell in love with. The illustrations are kooky and the text is silly (see videos below for sample pages).
Lulu absolutely loves the sand. She loves to run in it. She loves to play in it. And even though she's 15.5 months old, she still loves to eat it! Good thing for us, we only live five blocks from the Pacific Ocean, where an endless supply of her favorite play-material exists! Any of you live with sand creatures? If so, when do they stop eating it?!
Outfit: Duns short sleeve body, Circo shorts, and Nowali Swedish moccasins.
Right now Lulu's more interested in eating her crayons than drawing with them. For every bite she takes, she'll make a few chicken scratches in the coloring book. Holding a crayon isn't very natural to her so it's cool to help position it in her hand and show her what to do. Lulu's also trying to figure out which hand works best overall. As of now, we're thinking she's a lefty!
Outfit: Monument Valley short sleeve tourist t-shirt, Mini-Boden knee patch trousers, and Marimekko socks.
Dim sum is one of my top ten favorite things to shove into my face. So when we made plans to join the Saita clan at Sea Empress Restaurant for brunch, I was pretty damn excited. To add to all my joy, I was looking forward to experiencing another milestone with Lulu.*
I grew up with a family that had a dim sum weekend tradition, so for me, the meal has always been about much more than just the food. Many smiles and stories have been shared across the Lazy Susan and I was looking forward to starting a similar ritual with my own posse.
And after a year of reading, 'Yum Yum Dim Sum' to Lulu, I was stoked to finally introduce her to the tasty food! And she loved the grub! Oh boy did she eat it all up. At one point, I couldn't feed her fast enough because I was talking too much, so Lulu grabbed the sticky rice from me and just started feeding herself. She kept making yum-yum noises so I'm pretty sure she was digging dim sum as much as I was. I'm hoping Lulu's hearty appetite and willingness to try everything continues. Let the food adventures carry on. Next up, sushi!
*Lulu's been to dim sum before, she's just never had the opportunity to eat anything!
Outfit: Tea Collection boys hoodie.
Charley Harper: Charley Harper ABCs
Beautifully illustrated ABCs book, Lulu is mesmerized by the letter O for owls!
H. A. Rey: Curious George's Are You Curious?
Read along to see if your little monkey is as mischievous as everyone's favorite George!
Dr. Seuss: Hop on Pop-Up
Fun with words.
Anastasia Suen: Subway
An early favorite of Lulu's, she loved the rhythmic words and sing-song feel of the book. A must for all urban dwelling tots!
Maurice Sendak: Where the Wild Things Are
A family favorite. Lulu loves the party part of the book (maybe it's our sound effects)!
Ed Emberley: Where's My Sweetie Pie?
Lift flaps to uncover and discover secret treasures.
Amy Wilson Sanger: Yum Yum Dim Sum
What a great book to teach Lulu about a family food favorite. The words are catchy if not a bit hoakie.
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