Naturally, a lot of our life revolves around Noah right now.
His often and stringent nap schedule,
His crappy diapers,
His need for food,
His obsession with putting everything in his mouth and therefore preventing his sister from freely playing with all of her favorite little things,
Him, him, him.
Due to this unbalanced state of our household, Chris and I felt like we should take Ali out on a special date, sans baby brother, and lavish some two-on-one attention upon her.
And, since she inherited her father’s gene of loving anything that can be dipped (she has been known to gleefully dip watermelon in honey mustard sauce), we decided to treat her to a super fancy fondue date at The Melting Pot.
So we let Ali dress up in her sparkliest fanciest outfit and dumped Noah at his Godparents’ house, where he provided the invaluable service of methodically showing them every single item they owned that was breakable, edible, annoyingly loud when banged upon other items, and otherwise un-babyproofed.
(He is opening his own business and will be offering this service to expecting parents and grandparents – $200 for 2 hours of babyproofing consulting. Watch for his contact info on an infomercial near you.)
Back to the super special date.
About ten minutes after we left their house, Ali sighed loudly from the backseat.
“What’s wrong, honey?”
“I wish Noah was with us. I miss him. A LOT.”
We assured her that only she was mature and fancy enough for this sort of date (“Just like Fancy Nancy??” “Yes, JUST like Fancy Nancy.”), and she perked up just fine when we arrived and introduced her to The Forks.
She was greatly anticipating Fancy Dip-Dip, but Chris might have been a tad bit more excited.
The cheese arrived, along with it’s bread, veggies, and apples to dip in it.
We told Ali that it was going to be the best Cheesy Dip-Dip of her life.
She watched our waitress mix it, stir it, and melt it with intense excitement.
And then we dipped.
She took a bite, and immediately declared that she didn’t like the cheese at all, but that she would be willing to eat the apples and bread, just no cheese please.
We gladly ate her portion of cheese while she was much more interested in playing with the blinds than the amazing feast of awesome that was in front of her.
So, we failed on the cheese. But we were okay, because we knew that it would be breaking multiple Universal Laws of Physics for her to not adore the Chocolate Dip-Dip.
So we licked our wounds and began hyping dessert.
“They’re going to bring brownies and cake and marshmallows and fruit … all to dip in CHOCOLATE!!!”
We got the Yin Yang, which is half dark chocolate, half white chocolate.
She tried the dark first…
while Chris looked on with a bit of drool on his lip.
She tasted it.
She thought.
She said, “eh…”
Then she dipped something in the White Chocolate.
“I like the vanilla better…but I think I would just rather eat the strawberries with no dip on them at all.”
And so she proceeded to do just that.
In summary, Ali’s favorite parts of going to The Melting Pot were:
- The blinds.
- The bread pieces.
- The apples.
- The strawberries.
- Tic Tac Toe.
Next time we feel the need to lavish special attention upon our daughter, we will spend significantly less money in our efforts.
…then again, splitting cheese and chocolate for three between two isn’t such a bad deal.
Just like a kid! But, it’s the thought that counts, right?
I took Beege on a special date for exactly the same reason.
Nothing at all went according to plan. The store I dragged her all the way downtown to go to didn’t have what we went there for (even though I checked the website first to make sure – boo!) and we ended up walking around in the heat looking for something else, which gave me a migraine and I had to call her dad to pick us up immediately instead of taking her out for her fancy big girl dinner. I felt awful – total mum fail.
Do you know what she remembers? The subway ride. Loved it. And walking down the street holding my hand.
They’re much easier on us than we are on ourselves. :\
Exactly how it is at our house. She always treasures things that I wouldn’t even think twice about. Which makes it really hard to PLAN something special. You can’t just go around planning to find an awesome rock…
Maybe next time just get a fondue pot (love mine!) and make it yourselves! :)
Lol that is hilarious! I am always amazed when things I think they will be so excited about are a big dud and then they get excited about totally random un-exciting things…like a rock.
I have STILL never been to the Melting Pot and I really want to go! A friend told me they have a Happy Hour that is not too expensive. T and I really need to go try it!
It’s a perfect date place – you’ll love it!
Haha, yep.
*sigh*
And that is EXACTLY why kids toys and things are WAY OVER PRICED!! They don’t care about that stuff, they care about the simple things… rocks, twigs, string, boxes, etc… and apparently blinds :D
I’m glad you got to enjoy some good food dipping!
I do believe that kid’s toys are shiny and bright and pretty to attract adults, not kids.
Ali looks so grown-up in your pictures! To be honest, I felt the same way about Melting Pot as she did!
Ha- I guess it’s not for everyone!!
Rachel, our efforts to please our oldest have turned out much the same. He typically is very low maintenance and an easygoing kid. He has three younger siblings and we often feel like he gets held back because he could do much more fun stuff but it’s not easy to load up a 3yo, 2yo and 6month old and take them somewhere. So we make special plans for our oldest. But he usually ends up saying he misses them or he just doesn’t enjoy whatever it is we’ve planned. We can’t be mad at him because he truly tries to have a good time. I think we put a lot more guilt and pressure on ourselves as parents than the kids do. I’ve decided this is not the first time a kid has had to share parents with a sibling and somehow they turn out fine. So maybe we should quit sweating it and realize special moments arent necessarily planned, but can be still enjoyed.
So true!! They decide the special moments, and they’re nearly entirely unpredictable. And you’re right – they’re much more adaptable and accepting of life than we think they are. Maybe that’s because we grow out of adaptability…
I must say that I agree with Ali on the “cheese dip”, I don’t care for any of the appetizer or main course fondues, but I’m all about the chocolate ones!
Great idea for a date night with Ali :)