Fondue and Ducks

We felt like going out to eat for dinner but we couldn't quite agree on where to go. I had seen a fondue restauraunt and thought it sounded like a good idea. Sasha is in a stage where she loves dipping her food so it sounded brilliant. Yeah, it wasn't. Right as we walked into the restauraunt, I noticed a sign that indicated a dress code suggesting suit jackets for men and discouraging (but not disallowing) jeans. Bad sign right away. Not a good idea to go to some fancy schmancy restauraunt with an 18 month old.
The tables had stoves built right in the middle of the tabletops. As my husband put Sasha into her high chair, he noticed right away that the control knob for the stovetop was right at her spot. Unfortunately Sasha made this discovery also and she would not leave her hands off the knob. We had to move her high chair away from the table and that made her very antsy. The menu looked delicious but it was very very expensive. I wasn't quite prepared for the sticker shock.
Sasha started throwing a temper tantrum and had a meltdown because she could not reach the table or play with the stovetop knob. We had to abort the whole dinner. I felt bad leaving the restauraunt without dining. The waiter was very friendly and helpful. But I wanted to leave before Sasha disrupted the dining experience for the whole restauraunt. It looked like it was going to come out to a $200 meal anyways! Yikes.

We went to kid-friendly McDonald's for dinner and that worked out much better anyways. Sasha loved her chicken nuggets.

After dinner, we went to a Barnes and Noble bookstore. Sasha made a new friend, as usual. This time, she had a blast with a girl who appeared to be about 3 years old. Sasha was copying all the girls movements. She ran when the girl ran, tried to jump when the girl jumped, and sat and read books when the girl sat and read books. It was very cute.
As usual, Sasha got a lot of complements from random strangers at the bookstore. "Oh she's soooooo cute!" people would exclaim. And the people in this area are cold and self-absorbed and usually ignore everyone, including cute little kids, so I guess that says a lot.
Sasha started getting tired and cranky at her usual bedtime. As we neared the registers of the store, Sasha started having a melt down. I had to have my husband check out the books solo while I had to take Sasha out of the store so the patrons wouldn't be subjected to toddler screams.

Immediately upon exiting the store, we noticed a pair of ducks. A male and a female were wandering around the entrance area, picking through the landscaped wood chips for food. I pointed the ducks out to my fussy little toddler and she immediately perked up. I set her down on the sidewalk and she followed the ducks around. She pointed at the ducks, repeatedly said "Duck! Duck!", and quacked at them. They were very tame. They didn't fly away at all. They seemed undisturbed by us, and didn't care that a toddler was following them around pointing and quacking at them. It was very cute. We let Sasha follow the ducks around for a while and once the ducks headed for the street, we had to pick her up and take her to the car despite her heavy protests. The ducks were a cute end to the day.