Tonight our family went out to eat, and it occurred to me that over the past 2 years of being on the diet, Charlotte has made her own adjustments and found ways to adapt to life on keto.  Since she finishes her meals much quicker than the rest of the family, she needs to entertain herself until we are done.  I used to pack a plethora of “things to do” in my purse, most of the time it all ended up on the floor or my son would be so distracted by the toys that he wouldn’t eat, and then I would have two kids fighting over a silly toy, NO kids eating, and two parents NOT enjoying a meal out of the house.

I’m not sure when all of this started, but Charlotte does this every time we eat out now.  As we are eating, she will snag little pieces of food, empty cups, silverware, anything on the table really, and make herself these little creations.  ***I will mention that Charlotte is not the kind of kid who will sneak food to eat it, she knows the rules and understands that she can not eat any of the food…ever.***  Tonight, her little creation was apparently a pizza for her babies (doll babies at home).  Obviously we do not bring any of this home, it is all just pretend play for her.

I thought I would mention this little quirk because, pre-diet, I would not have let her play with food at the table, especially in a restaurant.  Bringing toys and coloring sheets only lasts about 5 minutes on a good day, and asking her to sit there quietly with nothing to do but watch us eat is just not fair.  I folded and let her do this out of guilt in some ways… I felt bad that she could not order and eat special meals anymore, but my husband and I really enjoy eating out quite often.  To me, letting her essentially make a mess, and do something kids are “not supposed to do” is worth the occasional dirty look from a waitress or person sitting nearby.  It has to be better than sitting near a crying, whiney kid, right?!  Secondly, I put in my time as a waitress… I definitely cleaned up much bigger messes from kids and sometimes even adults!

Once Charlotte offered to “share” her creation with a waitress, she politely declined and said it looked “yucky”… however, I thought it looked beautiful just because the little creation kept Charlotte HAPPY and gave us all the 20 extra minutes to sit and relax and actually taste the food we were eating!  What do your kids do after they finish meals in a restaurant? Comment below, I would love to hear from you!

Here is another one… this was a night we had sushi.  She made bean soup out of edamame and soy sauce.  The edamame was great because it took her a long time to pick all the beans out of the shell!