a trip out to eat. I'm insane I think

My son had a perfect report card so we took him out to eat to celebrate. I should go on record this was not my idea, but my husband thought I said I wanted to do this. He was apparently only half listening to me. I thought we should do something that didn't involve food. I wan't to teach other ways of rewarding oneself.

I let him pick the location. He chose the local fast food joint. Big surprise. This wouldn't have been so bad except my husband was sick and couldn't go with us. Here is what happened. I just kept telling myself "I did this on purpose." Thanks to Sam and Kelly I have learned this sanity keeping mantra.

We arrived at the restaurant and my kids went to look at the toy display. The place was very quiet so I figured that would work. I went up to the counter and ordered. While I was doing this a couple walked in and was walking up to the line area. I looked over and saw my daughter had grabbed a high chair and was trying to bring it to Mommy. I though "how cute." She finally got it to me without too much trouble and parked it right next to me. My son started with "Mommy look at this" over and over on the other side while I'm trying to pay the guy at the counter. I told him I saw it and went back to getting my money out. At this point I realized my daughter, who is three, has scaled the high chair and is trying to sit down. As soon as I see her I didn't say anything, but inside I'm freaking out that she is going to hurt herself. I just wrapped my arms around her and sat her down in the seat. I figured the people behind must have thought what a terrible parent I am for not spotting her climbing, or they probably thought I was ignoring it. I wasn't she's just speedy gonzales. I rolled her forward to the end of the counter and straped her down with the seat belt so she couldn't climb back out.

She then discovered if she pushed really hard with her body she could make it roll. I grabbed her chair and hung on while I waited for the food. Meanwhile my son has discovered the new coffee dispenser. They, for some dumb reason, put this out for everyone to use. I recognize the convience factor for the customers, but it's a lawsuit waiting to happen. Some kid will pull on those cool handles wondering what they do and get coffee or hot water burns. I had to tell my son to not touch it because it was hot. Fortunately, he listens to that warning.

After we got our food I got our drinks and sat down. My daughter kept trying to swipe my food and my son just wanted the toy. I have a rule of no toys until we're done eating. He didn't like it when I put up his toy. They finally started eating, but then got bored and my daughter "found" her voice. I had difficutly shushing her. Fortunately, there weren't many people there and those that were had kids too. In fact, one of the other kids set her off one time. Then she discovered since the chair was on wheels and she could kick off from the table. She sent it skidding several feet. (Why don't they put breaks on those things) After admonishing her to stay put she did it again so I had to wrap a leg through one of the openings to stop her. Finally, we were done and could leave. Breathing a sigh of relief.

I'm not doing that again. And the kids wonder why I prefer to eat at home.