A Night on the Town

Car Guy told me he heard at work that the circus was in town and that they were walking the animals past his building to the arena so I took the kids to meet him and see the circus walk.  Penguin Girl was very excited.  Luckily I left early because we hit traffic.  Also lucky that the baby actually fell asleep in the car!  So he only cried for about 5 minutes at the end and beginning.  

Car Guy took Penguin Girl out in front of his office building to watch the parade of animals.  I was inside getting the baby out of the carseat into a sling.  By the time I got outside, it was all over!  All I saw were the butt end of some horses.  It wasn't much of a parade.  A few circus vehicles with performers waving, all the elephants walking in a row, and the horses.  And they were all going pretty fast.  Penguin Girl still thought it was really cool.  Car Guy and I could not understand why crowds of people had lined up on both sides of the street to see the 30 second parade.

Then Car Guy decided that since we came all the way downtown, we should go out to dinner.  He has been obsessed with this nouvelle Southern food restaurant he heard about, I think because of their signature dessert, Krispy Kreme bread pudding.  It turns out it was kind of a fancy place inside the Marriott Hotel.  But Car Guy says he doesn't like to be held back from doing stuff because of the baby and he doesn't mind having to walk him around.

I walked the baby around in the beginning and Car Guy took over for the rest of the meal.  He was in the sling so eventually he fell asleep.  It was only a so-so meal but it was fun to go out to eat.  The bread pudding was pretty good.  But the really funny thing was Penguin Girl reading the menu.  We have not been out to eat in a long time.  Her reading has really advanced quickly over the last several months and she has never made an effort to look at the words herself before.  Now that Penguin Girl can read the menu, she's all about giving her opinion of what she'd like to order.  She was voting for Meyer lemon squares for dessert.  I convinced her that since apple beignets came with ice cream, it was a better choice.  And they were yummy!

To top it off, the baby was just fussy in the car on the way home not all out crying as is typical (at least that's what Car Guy said since the boys were in one car and the girls in the other) and was in a really good mood when we got home even though it was way past bedtime.  And when he finally seemed tired, he let me lay him down on the bed and pat him and shush him to sleep.  I just had to cover his eyes with a corner of his blanket to make him close his eyes.

So all in all a pretty good night.