It's been quite some time since Connor and I were able to have one of our "Mommy & Me" days. He's been in full-time school for two years now, and his brothers joined him in full-time school this year. We used to sneak those days in while he was in part-time preschool and his brothers were in everyday Early Start.
Thanks to Grammy and Pappy, who invited the twins for an overnight visit on Friday, Connor and I had an extended "Mommy & Me" adventure. Connor started the adventure by taking over the main desktop computer in our house, the one Xander unwillingly vacated to leave for the beginning of his adventure. It took some prodding to get Connor to give up the computer and go out for dinner.
The good news is that Connor could pick anywhere that he wanted. Well, except that he waited until almost 7 o'clock to give up the computer. At which point he realized he was absolutely starving to death. And at that time on a Friday night, in our fair city, you're going to have to wait. At least an hour, sometimes more. And that's pretty much at any sit-down restaurant, even the major chains.
His first pick was Fazoli's, an odd choice given that we hardly ever eat there and the last time that we did he didn't actually eat much of his food. Next was Cracker Barrel. I told him it would take 30 minutes to get there, and probably another hour on top of that to eat. He opted for something else, something he's heard Mommy and Daddy talking about but that he's never tried - Chipotle.
We had steak tacos. He just had cheese on his, but I had rice, cheese and mild salsa on mine. Mmm ... best tacos ever. We also had a bag of chips and salsa. He ate all the chips, and I brought the salsa home for later. We enjoyed a warm night on the patio, people watching and taking in the sights. We could smell the fresh doughnuts from the local Krispy Kreme, just a block or so away.
Our next stop was decided. We picked up doughnuts, eating a hot glazed right out of the box before we ever left the parking lot. And then we made our way back home.
On our way out to dinner, the neighborhood park was busy with Spring baseball games. We decided to walk back up to the park to see if we could catch the end of a game. No such luck, but we did find a minor league (ages 9 to 12) having practice. We climbed up the bleachers to watch. Connor ended up having a big time chasing foul balls for the team, tossing them back over the fence to the coach.
And I will take back some of my serious dislike for the league we abandoned after last season. This particular coach was the very essence of what you like to see in a kids' baseball coach. All of the boys were both trying hard AND having a great time. One of the kids, after taking his turn at batting practice and running the bases, did a cartwheel across home plate. The coach laughed, and at the end of practice, lined up the entire team to see who could do the best cartwheel. All of the boys were going through the effort and laughing at the results (only one or two boys could actually manage a true cartwheel).
The coach also did something really nice for Connor (and another little boy there at practice). After Connor had chased probably his fifteenth foul ball for the team, the coach asked him his name, and then if he wanted to come onto the field for batting practice. He asked one of his players to find a bat that Connor could swing, which the other player happily did, and then lobbed a pitch into him that he nailed into the outfield. He was having the time of his life, playing with the big kids and hitting it on the first try. He took his place on first, and a little brother to one of the actual players got to do the same. They both got to run the bases to end the team's practice.
We ended the night with a little major league baseball on television before bed time (an hour or so past his usual). We both got to sleep in (a little), as brothers were not home to wake us up at the crack of dawn. My alarm still went off, because Connor had a baseball game at 10:30 that morning, which meant his coach had asked the team to arrive by 9:45 for batting practice and warm-up.
Connor and I had a good little adventure. Special thanks to Grammy and Pappy, who took the twins on their own special adventure (playground and Cracker Barrel on Friday; doughnut shop, indoor pool and Chick-fil-A on Saturday) before bringing them back home.