His First White Tablecloth

Okay...first, I have to say, I know this is a bad photo. It's the best I could do in a dark restaurant, with the cell phone and no flash. But the picture is priceless...
There is a long history with my dad and ice cream for the kids. When my sister and I used to visit my dad on weekends, every night as we got in bed, he would bring each of us a bowl of ice cream and fruit. Although he doesn't bring Sam ice cream in bed (yet), he does sneak him "one bite" as often as he can. Opening my dad's freezer is so telling. You're almost clobbered each time by the avalanche of various brands and flavors of ice cream. So, here we are...this picture was taken at 7:00 pm (Sam's bedtime) and he and his, ice cream loving, Pop are eating ice cream.
Friday was my dad's birthday and John and I decided to take him out for a special treat...a Kobe Filet Mignon at Al Biernat's. John and I made our first trip to Al's after we were given a gift certificate as a wedding gift from one of my teaching teammates...their Kobe Filet is the best steak we have ever had!
So Sam had a couple of firsts at Pop's "birthday party" dinner. It was his first time eating in a restaurant with white tablecloths. And he blew out his first candle, all by himself (too bad it was someone else's...just practicing for his birthday in 2 weeks!). John was a little worried about about taking Sam to Al's....the chance of Sam being loud, bothering other customers, not being able to last through a 4 course meal, etc. When I made our reservation, John had me let them know that we had an (almost) 2 year old and ask them if that would be a problem...they assured me it wasn't. We did make our reservation for 5:30 (when they start serving dinner), so I figured it wouldn't be too busy at that time. And we came armed with Sam's favorite I Spy books that he can sit and look at for extended periods of time. I hadn't thought about the significance of the white tablecloths until we arrived and approached the table. My first thought was, "Oh yeah, I guess I won't need to stick the plastic Sesame Street disposable place mat down on this table...it probably won't stick to cloth." I only worried for one second when we were being seated and there were four chairs at our table. I turned to the gentleman seating us and hesitantly asked, "Do you have a high chair or booster seat?"...Yes. They had both. And then I relaxed. When taking our drink order, they offered to bring Sam milk...I declined at first, thinking to myself, "Dare I ask if they have plastic cups with lids?" I never asked, but later during our meal I did get him some milk and it came in a real glass with a straw (I held it, of course). But really, all our worries were quickly squashed. The staff was amazing! They were so attentive and checked on Sam each time they came to the table. Even though there wasn't a kids menu, there was plenty of good food to eat on our plates...and THAT Sam did do!...He devoured the Kobe Filet, Veal, and creamed spinach. I think they (I say they, because there were two guys who kept coming to check on us, and Sam.) offered Sam more whipped sweet potatoes (the garnish on our plates) at least 5 times because we each had to scrape our whipped sweet potatoes onto Sam's plate. I forgot to bring the kiddie fork with us, so Sam was struggling to eat with a very LARGE dinner fork. And when Sam dropped his fork, someone picked it up before I could even bend down and get it, and had another one for him in less than a minute. I kept encouraging him to eat with his fingers, but he'd look around the table to see we were using forks and he wouldn't put his down. Only once did he let out a fabulous shrill scream that only a toddler could conjure up. I quickly used my friend Memori's technique of teaching appropriate behavior..."Look around at all the people. Is anyone else screaming at the table? No. Because we don't scream at the table." It seemed to do the trick. I was fully prepared to have to leave the table with Sam and take a walk outside to give him a break, but it didn't end up being necessary. And we were there for and hour and a half! We may not have had such a good experience had the service not been so great...maybe they were being fast and attentive to get us out of there. HaHa! No, I don't think so. They were just good.
Anyway, we had a great dinner...Sam's first fancy dinner. And I'm very proud of my little man! He was a trooper. John made the point..."If there's anyone who can sit and eat for an hour and a half, it's Sam!"...and a very good point that is.