An evening out

To celebrate getting my German passport, my parents took me out for American food. As soon as we sat down, I noticed the 7-month-old at the next table over watching my clearly advanced arm-waving skills. He seemed like a nice kid, so we decided to move our chairs closer so we could swap baby tips. I told him all about chewy food and teeth, and we reminisced about days gone by when the world was sunny and warm at dinnertime.



Waiter! More fries for me and my young friend, please!

The meal started off perfectly, with the server bringing me a bread basket without me even having to ask for it. Yay! Then the adults insisted on ordering for us. Adults have this odd conceit that they always know what we want to eat. If that were true, I wouldn’t have had to share those carrots and burger bits with Mr. Carpet.

But a good restaurant visit is never just about the food and checking to see if gravity is an everywhere thing. There are also toys to play with, like rattles and rings and ketchup bottles. My new friend and I swapped toys—me thoughtfully tasting his ring toy, and him carefully gumming my rattle. And my hand.



Wow, you really don’t have any teeth! Give yourself a couple of months.

Then I made a real discovery. The other father knows how to properly play the Picking Up Toys When I Throw Them On The Floor game! I played that one with him for quite a while. It brought back memories of when I was a mere baby. These days when I try to play that game with my father, he just shrugs his shoulders or pretends that he doesn’t have any idea where the toy went.

Eventually the evening had to come to an end. But not without swapping contact info, so we can do this again. I’ll have to bring all my toys to show off. And maybe next time the server will remember to ask us what we want to eat.