Pearson and I met up with Matt for an early birthday lunch at Grimaldi's today. Pearson was pretty excited to see his Daddy!!
Last night we both used our free burger birthday coupons at Red Robin for dinner. Pearson is always so good when we go out to eat, however he had only taken a 10 minute nap in the car so he was a fussy mess at dinner last night. We were a little desperate to keep him quiet last night so we resorted to setting up a little Baby Einstein video on my iPhone.
Please hear me out.....I am in no way judging those who let their kids watch videos at restaurants. I totally think it's fine on occasion. It's so nice to have a sure fire option to calm them down when you are desperate. I just don't want Pearson to get into a habit of thinking this is what we always do when we go out to eat.
So today at lunch when Pearson was not at all interested in anything I had brought him, we got a little creative.
Cheerios on a fork!!
It worked like a charm. He kept asking for more. I would load his fork up with Cheerios then he would eat them all off!!
When the Cheerios on the fork got old we just gave him an entire piece of pizza crust. He stayed entertained for quite a while gnawing on his pizza crust.
Our caesar salad and pizza for lunch was soooooo delicious and it was so nice to go on a little family date in the middle of the day!!
Now, my questions for all you Mommies out there is......
How do you keep your toddler entertained when you go out to eat??
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9 comments:
My son is 2.5 and is normally pretty well behaved when we are out to eat. I always have little hot wheels cars in my purse for emergencies though. Works every time he starts to lose his patience.
I have a busy bag I keep in the car for Pete, I have a couple of books, some crayons, stickers, a coloring book and small toys. I need to go through it and add for Tim.
Cute pictures!
We do resort to the phone at times because it is the only thing that works! I usually always have a few small toys packed plus crayons and paper! Kinsley loves to color. She is usually good if she has food in front of her too!
My two kids are usually pretty good (knock on wood) but like the other moms, I too keep a few small toys/books, and shame on me, some small pieces of candy. Another thing that I've learned is to visit resturants that have chips/rolls/salad bar that way we can begin to eat soon after we are seated.
Cute photos!
The only suggestion I have is to sit in a booth! haha Madelyn won't really sit in a high chair for very long anymore, but she likes the booth, because she can kinda walk around. I know it's not great for her to stand up in a booth, but it works and she eats her food that way!
We sometimes let Elliot bring a car in with him, but now that he gets a kid's menu, he usually colors on that until we get our food. He's pretty well behaved in restaurants, fortunately. We don't want to get into using technology to occupy our kids in public either!
I keep a couple of small board books (free ones from ChickFilA kids meals so I don't care what happens to them) and a couple of small toys. Plus we try to interact with her a lot when things start running past her attention span. We also take something that we know she really likes to eat (like squeezy fruit or some other treat) and save it until the end if needed.
I keep quiet toys and books in the diaper bag to keep him entertained. We've had to use the iPhone a couple of times also when we are desperate. I'm like you and don't want him to assume that he gets it just because we are out to eat.
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