Abbie Buffet
When Ellie came home for the day just before noon yesterday, my first thought was we were going out for lunch. Oh, and it’s good to see her; that one definitely came before the food thing.
Now that I’ve gotten over my fear of dealing with the twins in a restaurant, we regularly go out to eat; we almost have to plan our outings with a meal in the middle if we’re to have enough time to accomplish anything. If we try feeding the kids and then running to more than a couple stores on an expedition, inevitably someone starts screaming from hunger around the time we hit the “beyond” section in Bed, Bath, & Beyond. With a meal in the middle of an outing, we can pick up some Vital Supplies, eat, and still have time to browse the entire “noble” section after perusing the “barnes” aisles.
A weekday lunch outing is different. Usually when we stop to eat on an outing, it’s something quick. On a weekday, we can stop at a sit-down restaurant and enjoy their mid-week lunch specials used to entice businesspeople looking to escape the chaos of their offices. Suckers.
As I’ve mentioned far too many times, I like visiting buffets because they combine the benefits of a sit-down meal with the speed of fast food. Plus all of our children are still in that magical age group where they eat free, which is far better than blowing $3.49 on a kid’s meal and watching Abbie throw half her chicken nuggets on the floor.
We went to our favorite Chinese buffet, the one with over 100 entrees on the buffet of mostly Asian origin, but also including some American foods, a fruit and salad bar, and a stir-fried dish called “jalapeno chicken” that I’m not really sure what to categorize it as. Asican? As is our strategy, I filled a plate for Abbie and me while Ellie prepped the children for the meal. Her work involved sitting Abbie in her high chair and putting the twins in position to fall asleep, or at least contentedly watch us.
On my first trip through the line, I picked up all manner of stir-fried foods. I sent Ellie off to the buffet while I tried various foods on Abbie to see what she liked. She liked none of it; not the Crispy Pork, or the Pineapple Chicken, or even the General Tso’s Chicken. I had hoped that her affinity for fried chicken in nugget form would lead her to enjoy stir-fried chicken coated in various Asian sauces, but nope. Fortunately I was able to tide her over with broccoli chunks from my Broccoli Chicken until Ellie returned and I could fetch her a suitable plate.
I returned with a plate loaded with fruit, gelatin, pudding, and something from the American side called Honey Chicken that was bits of simmered chicken in a sweet red sauce, possibly containing honey. I felt a little silly when I returned and remembered earlier buffet attempts to keep her happy with fruit, only to see her refuse to eat three-quarters of her plate. To my surprise, she cleaned her plate, downing the grapes, mandarin oranges, pudding, and the entire helping of Honey Chicken. She even ate the fruits she doesn’t normally touch like bananas and pineapple, along with the 2-inch gelatin cube in one bite. She ate so well, I grabbed another plate full of fruit, and that plate she left three-quarters untouched.
The boys were not pleasant during this time. I guess that it’s a positive sign of their mental development that they no longer fall asleep every time we leave the house, but this is going to make meals difficult until we can start bribing them with food. Ellie wound up holding Ian for most of the meal to keep him happy. Eventually she reached for his pacifier to calm him, but quickly realized we forgot to bring it. So she gave him a green bean to suck. It worked well as a pacifier, at least until he managed to suck out a bean.
For dessert, I grabbed Abbie an ice cream cone. I appreciate being able to make an Abbie sized cone, which is one filled with as little ice cream as possible. That means less ice cream to smear on her face, less ice cream to drip down her arms, and less ice cream to splatter on the carpet when she throws her cone.
On our way out the door, I recapped what I’d learned. Chunks of meat still aren’t Abbie’s favorite things to eat. I should give her more fruit as a snack. Never leave home without the twins’ pacifiers, or at least grabbed some well-cooked green beans.
Now that I’ve gotten over my fear of dealing with the twins in a restaurant, we regularly go out to eat; we almost have to plan our outings with a meal in the middle if we’re to have enough time to accomplish anything. If we try feeding the kids and then running to more than a couple stores on an expedition, inevitably someone starts screaming from hunger around the time we hit the “beyond” section in Bed, Bath, & Beyond. With a meal in the middle of an outing, we can pick up some Vital Supplies, eat, and still have time to browse the entire “noble” section after perusing the “barnes” aisles.
A weekday lunch outing is different. Usually when we stop to eat on an outing, it’s something quick. On a weekday, we can stop at a sit-down restaurant and enjoy their mid-week lunch specials used to entice businesspeople looking to escape the chaos of their offices. Suckers.
As I’ve mentioned far too many times, I like visiting buffets because they combine the benefits of a sit-down meal with the speed of fast food. Plus all of our children are still in that magical age group where they eat free, which is far better than blowing $3.49 on a kid’s meal and watching Abbie throw half her chicken nuggets on the floor.
We went to our favorite Chinese buffet, the one with over 100 entrees on the buffet of mostly Asian origin, but also including some American foods, a fruit and salad bar, and a stir-fried dish called “jalapeno chicken” that I’m not really sure what to categorize it as. Asican? As is our strategy, I filled a plate for Abbie and me while Ellie prepped the children for the meal. Her work involved sitting Abbie in her high chair and putting the twins in position to fall asleep, or at least contentedly watch us.
On my first trip through the line, I picked up all manner of stir-fried foods. I sent Ellie off to the buffet while I tried various foods on Abbie to see what she liked. She liked none of it; not the Crispy Pork, or the Pineapple Chicken, or even the General Tso’s Chicken. I had hoped that her affinity for fried chicken in nugget form would lead her to enjoy stir-fried chicken coated in various Asian sauces, but nope. Fortunately I was able to tide her over with broccoli chunks from my Broccoli Chicken until Ellie returned and I could fetch her a suitable plate.
I returned with a plate loaded with fruit, gelatin, pudding, and something from the American side called Honey Chicken that was bits of simmered chicken in a sweet red sauce, possibly containing honey. I felt a little silly when I returned and remembered earlier buffet attempts to keep her happy with fruit, only to see her refuse to eat three-quarters of her plate. To my surprise, she cleaned her plate, downing the grapes, mandarin oranges, pudding, and the entire helping of Honey Chicken. She even ate the fruits she doesn’t normally touch like bananas and pineapple, along with the 2-inch gelatin cube in one bite. She ate so well, I grabbed another plate full of fruit, and that plate she left three-quarters untouched.
The boys were not pleasant during this time. I guess that it’s a positive sign of their mental development that they no longer fall asleep every time we leave the house, but this is going to make meals difficult until we can start bribing them with food. Ellie wound up holding Ian for most of the meal to keep him happy. Eventually she reached for his pacifier to calm him, but quickly realized we forgot to bring it. So she gave him a green bean to suck. It worked well as a pacifier, at least until he managed to suck out a bean.
For dessert, I grabbed Abbie an ice cream cone. I appreciate being able to make an Abbie sized cone, which is one filled with as little ice cream as possible. That means less ice cream to smear on her face, less ice cream to drip down her arms, and less ice cream to splatter on the carpet when she throws her cone.
On our way out the door, I recapped what I’d learned. Chunks of meat still aren’t Abbie’s favorite things to eat. I should give her more fruit as a snack. Never leave home without the twins’ pacifiers, or at least grabbed some well-cooked green beans.
posted by Matt at
11:55 PM
1 Comments:
Yes, that stage between sleepy-all-the-time newborn and eating-what-we-eat baby almost got the best of us. We are just now able to confidently venture back into restaurants.
By
Amy, at 8:05 PM
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