After a night of me not sleeping at all (but Kate did… now there’s a plot twist) and then Kate waking up early I did my usual: curled up on the couch and turned on Elmo. I kept the remote near at hand, since I have to keep hitting play next, pulled up my blanket and curled up on my side. Kate immediately climbs up on the couch with her puppy and sits with her back leaning up against my chest. She leans her head against mine, so my lips are pressed to her cheek. We stayed that way for a while. I fell asleep a few times, woken by her asking for another episode.

She hops down a few times – once two retrieve the dropped puppy and climb back up, the next to run over to the highchair and ask to eat. I brought over her little strap-on booster seat, set it on the floor and gave her a cut-up peanut butter and jam sandwich that was left over from yesterday. I kept trying to open one eye to peek at her and make sure she wasn’t doing something terrible with the PB&J but she was just quietly and slowly munching on it. She had found her sippy cup of water. She was all set.

Next time she roused me she wanted out of the seat and climbed back up with me. So there we stayed, cuddled together, warm memories drifting in about how I used to sleep with her in my arms all the time. It was such a perfect moment.

::

Yesterday we went out for dinner to our favorite hibachi restaurant. Eating out is certainly a bit tricky now that Kate is a toddler and doesn’t want to ever sit still. The last time we attempted to eat out it was spur of the moment. We were all hungry and when told it would be a 30-minute wait just to be seated we left, knowing Kate wouldn’t handle the wait – which in and of itself caused a complete meltdown the entire trip home. It’s a touchy thing, this timing – the kid has to be hungry enough to be occupied by the food while you eat your dinner, but at the same time that makes them hungry enough to freak the hell out if there is any delay.

So yesterday we timed it well and went for hibachi, which has the added benefit of being something to watch while eating and getting more hot food every few minutes which plays in nicely. Kate did take several trips to check out the fish aquarium before the food started, but then was good and ready for her meal. She was excellent. She dug into the rice and noodles, was trying to stuff whole shrimp in her mouth (ummm… no) and devoured the cooked veggies including carrots and “trees” (broccoli). She talked (loudly) in excited gibberish the entire time, as if wanting to share just how delighted she was with our outing. At the end of the meal there was surprisingly little food under her chair, too – apparently it was so good she ensured that every bite went directly in her mouth.

Funniest moment though was when the chef arrived at our table. Kate stared at him wide-eyed and I wasn’t sure how she was going to react. Then she pointed at me, told the chef very loudly, “Mama!” and patted my arm a few times just to make it clear that I was indeed her mama. She again repeated this halfway through our meal when the lady sitting next to me started talking to me about Kate. “Mama,” Kate told her proudly while patting me. “Mama.

I really love it when outings go well like that – they definitely don’t always. I was so proud of my little munchkin.