The dad in question took this photo the night before His Special Day, and since it's so cute and I really have nowhere else to put it, here it is. That's The Littles, Sophia and Jack, snuggled up together on the couch, reading a book. They were like that for at least a half-hour, exclaiming over this or that in the pictures. How stinking cute, right?!
For most of Father's Day, Rob slept. He's been working nights, so that's normal for him. Now, this week, he is back on days as he works on transferring to a new command, but on Sunday, he was still on mid-check sleeping schedule.
The kids and I hung out and waited for him to awake, but by 1600, we were sweating bullets in this AC-free house. I could stand it no longer. "Let's go to the pool, kids!" I shouted! We tried to get Daddy to come with us, but he slept on, and so we walked to the pool by ourselves.
We played and splashed and splashed and played, and then suddenly, around 1730, Daddy appeared! The kids were overjoyed, and their overjoy overjoyed the overjoyer. More playing and splashing ensued, this time with the newcomer while Mom took a few deep breaths.
Soon, it was time for an Adult Swim, and the kids reluctantly got out (although a certain Soap kept climbing back IN when she thought no one was watching) while Rob and I clung tightly to each other in the water. We rarely get a few moments to ourselves during waking hours, so we take 'em where we can get 'em. Don't get the wrong idea; we weren't doing the nasty for the crowd... it's just, we held on to each other and didn't let go, for the full 20-minute Swim.
By six, tummies were growling. Tummies and a pouch. The kitchen was a mess, and as I've said about sixty billion times before, I don't cook in a messy kitchen! I wasn't about to make Rob either clean it up or cook on His Special Day, so I decided to take him out for dinner.
I knew exactly where we were going to go: Croc's 19th Street Bistro. They have local and organic food (though not exclusively), and while we were there, we found several additional eco-friendly initiatives in which they take part. The awesomeness! The best part was, we had an undesignated Restaurant.com certificate to use, and Croc's takes part in their program, so our meal was $25 cheaper than, well, than it woulda been!
Croc's is an upscale, white-tablecloth establishment, but that doesn't mean they're not also child-friendly. Indeed, they were ready with crayons and coloring menus as soon as we were seated at a nice, roomy table. (And I still haven't taken off that chippy nail polish!)
Chloë colored, did the maze (they all did, and somehow, they found three different but correct solutions!), and played the Word Find before her food came. She keeps herself busy. (And I don't remember her hair looking that bad!)
When he's not complaining about being hungry, this is generally how Jack passes his time in a restaurant, before the food comes. He'll be 21 and still sucking that thumb, I think. (Not that I can talk; I sucked mine until well after I turned nine.) Both Littles suck their left thumb and twiddle their hair with their right. When they sit next to each other and do it, it's pretty cute.
Rob was busy reading his menu and trying to ignore the person who insists on bringing her camera everywhere, like a Japanese tourist. Hey, if we did it, it's bloggable. (Check out how white his beard is getting. I rather like it.) (And doesn't he have a nice chin? It's why I married him. I don't have one at all. Proof is in the VLOG post preceding this one!)
All the tables were decorated with what we determined, after much deliberation, because we are dummies, to be rosemary. Whatever it was, it smelled good.
Sophia wanted a photo with her mommy. Never mind that we're at a fancy restaurant and my hair isn't done and I'm not wearing make-up. Do you have any idea how HOT and HUMID it gets here? Ridiculously so.
I ordered the scallops, and whatever pasta came with it. I didn't really pay attention to that part, because I can't eat it. I love me some scallops, though, and no one else does, so they were allll miiiine. And they were delicious. (Okay, I tried some of the pasta, too, and it was very good. But don't tell my surgeon that! The girls slurped it right up, though.)
I passed the camera to Rob for this photo of his dish. Apparently it was good, but it was not what he wanted. I scolded him (shame on me, on His Special Day, of all days!) for initially ordering the most expensive thing on the menu (lamb chops) when we are so short on funds, so he called the server over and changed his order to the least expensive thing on the menu! I don't know if he was alternatively considering this dish or was just doing it to passive-aggressively spite me, but either way, I felt bad about it. Regardless, he enjoyed his food there and again later that night, when he had the leftovers.
Jack ordered a pizza off the kids' menu, and I was glad it was so big when it arrived, because all three kids were able to eat it. And they did. I'll keep that in mind for next time. The girls both ordered the spaghetti, but it was so spicy, neither of them would touch it. I was pleased when our server took both their dishes off the bill when she saw that, without my even asking. Major brownie points, there.
We gave the children the choice of having dessert at Croc's or going to the carnival they'd seen multiple times from the highway, while driving past Mt. Trashmore park. After absolutely zero deliberation, they all chose to go to the carnival.
Our carnival-going funds were severely restricted, so we told the chirren they could go on one kid ride and one family ride. Jack, who has a sixth sense for these things, immediately decided he was going on the cars-go-round, but the girls decided to go on the giant slide. Well, Sophia did (that picture didn't turn out), and when she saw how much fun her sister had, Chloë did, too.
Wheeee!!!!!
Yes, he really is cute from every angle. At least, I think so. This was while waiting in the very short line for the cars-go-round, after the slide. You can't talk to him when he's like this; he won't hear you. (By the way, do you recognize his shirt? It's the one we brought him back two years ago from Monaco. It'll probably still fit in two more years...)
Jack is always intense while driving any kind of car. I can't wait to see if he's the same way when he gets behind the real wheel of a real car on a real road. I bet he will be. Driving ain't no joke, y'all.
The girls weren't supposed to be on this ride, because we didn't have the tickets for them to go, but the ride lady just waved them on, anyway. She didn't give a damn. She was about five inches tall and cracked jokes the entire time. I couldn't decide if she loved her job or hated it.
The kids, two of whom are chickeny-chickens, unanimously decided that our family ride would have to be the carousel. Sophia would have preferred the roller coaster, but she instantly deferred to her older sibs.
Even a tame pony is too much action for Master Jack, who prefers to sit it out on a bench. Don't even THINK about lifting him up the air. He will claw your face to shreds!
For Sophia, this ride is about as easy as walking. She prefers it fast and furious. (Hey, now, don't read anything gross into that. She's five.)
Rob, up on his high horse (oh, how I amused myself with that one, Sunday night)
I just see the flaws...
Those lucky ducks had their cake and ate it, too, because I decided I just HAD to have a little vanilla soft-serve. So we all had some.
And then we went home, and we put three tired babies to bed, and behold, it was good. So declared the father of this bunch.
Fin.
P.S. Chloë didn't get the commercial we went up to Newport News for last Thursday. Bugger. It's those teeth, I'm betting! ;)
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