girls night out but in by 7.30pm

the other night charles and i decided it was time to divide and conquer the troops - he would take the boys for boys night out at the boat club, and i would take the girls out for dinner "anywhere but the boat club" in his words.

"you don't have to worry about that," i replied.

i cornered my girlie whirlies and said, "ladies. dinner. where'd you like to go?"

"dan ryans!" shrieked my girls. i congratulated them on their good taste and was about to lay down the rules of no shrieking, smoking and giggling, when they scurried away to get organised for the evening.

apparently, date night with mum is just the same as date night with a boy. best dresses must be worn. the girls informed me they needed to wear their belle dresses. "fine" i responded, and then, getting into the spirit of things, offered to let them wear their black patent shoes.

"yes please" they said, exclamation points evident and the pitch in their voice hitting close to hysterical.

i marched out of the door wtih my two yellow beams of sunshine and they efficiently hailed me a taxi.  upon arriving at pacific place they thanked the driver and marched along, happily listening to their little heels tip tapping on the floors. they got excited by all the chrome and mirrors, and began jumping up and down. "dan ryans! dan ryans! eating chippies at dan ryans!" they piped loudly and merrily.

bored of jumping infront of a mirror, or possibly disconcerted with the people who were taking their picture with their mobile phones, the girls decided to run off. "HOLD HANDS!" i bellowed at them, and they did. i think the crowds thought that one girls name was dan and the other's name was ryan.

between sprints and jumping on the spot, we managed to arrive at dan ryans on time. i offered to take the girls to the lavatory, but they declined. they knew a breadbasket was waiting. we were led to our seat, and just as everyone got buckled into their boosters, sela announced she had to do a wee.

"but i just asked you if you needed to go and you said NO!" i attempted to protest.

she didn't say, "meh" but she appeared to be thinking it.

i ordered, quickly, and raced off to the lav with the gals.

sela did a wee, we washed hands (even carys) and then they decided to pengiun walk back to our booth.

and then after five minutes of quiet crayoning and me thinking that two kids is EASY, carys announced, "i need to wee."

unlock from boosters, race to washrooms, toss carys on the loo, wipe, wash hands. return to seat.

commence crayoning.

the bread basket was brought and my little carbo girls descended into it impressively.

and then the main meal. as it was arriving, sela announced that she had yet another trip to make to the bathroom.

i got her out of her seat and asked a passing waiter to watch her (she was ready to bolt to the bathroom) while i got carys unclipped. she gave me an odd look but i was busy getting carys ready for lav trip three. as i was swinging carys to freedom, the lady in the booth beside us says, "HEY!" and jerked her head. the waiter was leading sela to the bathroom! she must have thought i wanted her to take sela to do her poopers!

carys and i caught up and headed said we would take over.

the food got cold as we waited for sela, and then carys to perform.

hands washed, dried, return to table, eat food.

then we paid, made one more trip to the loo, and left.

given that there were now more people in the mall, the girls made an even greater spectacle as we were leaving, but they were being good, so what can i say? "don't be 2/3 of triplets?" it was my fault for allowing the outlandish belle dresses, and they were so very very pleased wtih them.

then it was to odila's house, where odila and joel gave the girl's sweeties and treated them like honoured guests. joel put both girls on his lap and showed them pictures of Christmas and their birthday party and they were enchanted, pointing to "my dora" and various swimsuits. odila and i talked work and laughed.

and then it was time to head home.

i like the concept of "date" nights. but i think to achieve maximum one on one time with the child, there needs to be one parent and one child. magnificent (who was sick as a parrot at the end of his date night with the boys, they were no where as near as well behaved as the girls) and i are trying to figure out if we each take one child out and leave two at home, or what the correct formula is. and what to do???

however, whether we bonded or not and i suppose only the girls and their therapists will be able to tell in years to come, we did have a lot of fun the other night at girls night out.

Comments

[joeinvegasjoeinvegas]

I think you are doing fine like this - at this age one at a time would not be as traumatic as being the one left behind.

[knobody]

sounds like you girls had a fun, if exhausting time.

and what's so sick about parrots?

[Boulder]

I have to love 2 girls who are excited about eating "chippies" at any restaurant, and I can't tell you how impressed I am that they knew a bread basket is to be enjoyed with glee!

[Maggs]

Miss A LOVES to our every bathroom when we're out. She also likes to yell and sing-she loves the echos.