My Friday Night Date!

Gotchya with that title, didn't I.

Lil' Bro was sick, as I mentioned before. When Pokemon Boy got out of school, he intended to begin the "fun" of summer vacation as soon as he got home. Alas, I had to keep working. Darn my work ethic and my love of having a roof over my head.

I informed Pokemon Boy that we couldn't go anywhere because his little brother was sick. Apparently, Lil' Bro planned this illness simply to thwart Pokemon Boy's pursuit of happiness. Since Lil' Bro had infringed on Pokemon Boy's inalienable rights, I thought it only fair that I take Pokemon Boy somewhere fun. This brought much whining from Lil' Bro, accompanied by many assurances that he was better and was fine to accompany us to whatever fun we were planning.

I am a mean mommy. I told Mr. Sicky Pants that he had to stay home so he didn't spread whatever it was to all the other kids at wherever we went. I spent the rest of my work day listening to Lil' Bro beg and whine - all while laying on the floor only barely able to keep himself from falling asleep.

My mom came back over to watch Lil' Bro while I took Pokemon Boy to this place that's like Chucky Cheese's on steroids. I usually hate the place. The giant pizza/pasta/salad bar buffet is great but honestly, it's like all children check their manners at the door. And many of their parents seem to have followed suit. Most of the dining rooms have TV screens that take up an entire wall. So I could choose from trying to scream a conversation over whatever cartoon they were showing on Boomerang or the basket ball finals in the other room (packed with mostly dads). It was nice only having one boy there. I was able to carry most of the food stuffs around the buffet. They don't give you trays. So you kind of have to balance whatever you possibly can over to your table, plant your kid down (if you feel safe doing that) and then go back to get whatever else you need. It's not for the faint of heart. It's not for single parents whose kids aren't old enough to leave at a table alone for about 3 minutes. It's not for anyone with anger management issues.

Then there's the ginormous game room. Usually, I'm trying to keep track of two little boys who are 3 1/2 years apart in age and therefore want to do very different activities. With only one boy to track, it was much easier. And since my boy doesn't play video games at home, he didn't really care for the entire section of those sit-in games where you practice bringing death and destruction to all manner of creatures. He rode the bumper cars about 4 times. We played air hockey 4 times. We walked around and looked at the other stuff there but always ended up at the bumper cars or air hockey tables. It was awesome.

We had promised to bring Lil' Bro some prize from the place but the bumper cars and air hockey don't win tickets. So we headed off to Walmart to get something to make Lil' Bro feel better. Little Iron Man toys did the trick. He must have thanked me about 7 times this morning for his Iron Man toys. I was told that he has always wanted them. Always. Which is interesting since they've just come out within the last couple of months. But then, a couple of months is "always" to a 4 yr old.

So I had a really cool date with Pokemon Boy. I will have to have a fun night out with Lil' Bro sometime, too. Just carving out some one-on-one time with each kid is going to be important. Thank God for my mom & dad being around.