A New, Gratifying Experience

First of all, a shout out to all my new blogging friends. All of sudden, we are a growing group of people and I'm so glad to get a little peek into the thoughts of my friends. Keep writing, it's good for the soul! Also interesting is the growing amount of conversations that have been happening as a result of my or others' blogs. I'm still not sure how confident I am sharing this little blog of mine, but as time passes the word seems to spread. So here we go.

Anyway, the title of the blog and the real point of this post is this: we (hubby, Evy and I) went out to dinner tonight with my in-laws to a wonderful restaurant. It's a fantastic, quiet, Spanish tapas restaurant that Reed and I had been to before and were happy to share it with his parents who also share a love of all things Spanish.
But I had my reservation, a big reservation. This place is a little more fancy, nice, romantic than any we had taken Evyn to before. She's 3 (almost). I wasn't at all sure how she was going to behave. I mean, she's a great kiddo, but to sit quietly in a nice restaurant until everyone is done...most likely refusing (hopefully politely so) all food offerings because they are not her usual fare. That's a lot to ask a toddler.

I shared my misgivings with the family before we left but they were all pretty certain that everything would be fine. So, we went.

Here's the great part: she was great! I gave her the pep talk about what we expected while we were in the restaurant. She had listened and said her adorably chipper little, "Okay, Mommy!" A little too chipper for me to think anything had actually sunk in. But she really was great. No, she didn't really eat any of the food we offered (besides the rolls they brought out while we were waiting) but she was very polite and quiet. We did eventually have to give her a small toy (a miniature/travel set of make-up brushes she pretends to "paint" with), but she did so very sweetly.

Here's the kicker: we got two unsolicited compliments on her wonderful behavior. Now that is something to blog about! One lady sitting at the next table told us she was "good as gold!". Another man sitting on the other side of us stopped me as we were leaving and said something about how well behaved our little girl was. Yes, I think our pride filled the room! I mean, I'm actually sort of used to people commenting on how cute she is (that's what you're supposed to do with cute little girls) but that is the first time I'd been complimented on her behavior. Totally gratifying.

So, if you're reading this, please know that she also has her very stubborn streak and can tantrum with the best of 'em for what she wants. This was a wonderful affirmation and encouragement that God was actually using me to teach my child about respecting and considering others. I needed that this week. He is so good!