Wow, was I super surprised at how well it went at Outback last night! Tyler did extremely well there. When we first pulled his highchair up to the table, he spent some time checking out daddy’s glass, then spent some fun time chewing on the cardboard coasters (until he managed to chew a small chunk off…).
After we fished the cardboard out his mouth, he sat there drumming his hands on the table, as if to say “hmmm… now what? getting bored now…..”. Wanting to head off any trouble, I broke out what ended up being the secret weapon of the night — a maple flavored teething biscuit. He proceeded to sit there and contentedly chew on his biscuit for a good 30-40 minutes! He just sat there, happily dribbling maple down his chin while he watched in wide-eyed amazement as people walked by.
One of the funniest parts of the evening was when we got our dinners. I was feeding Tyler green bean baby food with one hand, while I ate with the other. I had ordered a plain sweet potato as a side dish, because Tyler really likes the sweet potato baby food, and I wanted to see what he would think of the actual sweet potato. OMG, do I ever wish I had had a video camera there! When I pulled off a little piece of sweet potato and put it in his mouth, he stuck out his tongue and looked confused. Then he started to eat it, made a grimace as if it was the worst thing in the world, shook his head and shivered his shoulders, then proceeded to open his mouth, lean toward me and look expectantly, like “well? put more here please….”. I really wish I had a video of it, because it is hard to describe but was absolutely hysterical! He repeated this process each time I gave him a bite of sweet potato, but apparently he liked it, because he kept coming back for more.