romance

i recall a date with brad before marriage in which we ate at johnny carinos in an intimate booth, focused primarily at the love shining from one another's eyes.

sigh

five years later, i now have a new johnny carinos image seared into my memory. we had some family errands to run last night, so we decided to eat out as we were already "in town" already. earlier in the day, i had sneaked to mcdonalds for lunch so i was attempting to nonchalantly steer us away from a burger joint. as brad drove into culvers, i commented on how empty johnny's parking lot appeared. so we gave it a go

we sat in a similar booth as our date night, only this time all three kids were crammed in there with us. max is to big for a high chair, so weston thinks he is as well. the boys sat next to brad, and i had ayla in the sling as well as all the jackets next to me. it was snug. it also seemed the table was shoved way close to me and ayla. which might have been a result of the fidgeting and ramming coming from the boys' side.

the service was fast, tho lacking in the friendly. when we speedily received our food, the waiter, alvin, literally shoved brads arm out of the way with his bowl of chicken gorgonzola. the boys ordered pizza but quickly had their eyes on the prize sitting in front of me: spaghetti. while i did try to direct their attention back to their own meal, the shrieking coming from our youngest son made me much more willing to share.

i planted my plate of spaghetti in front of bear, and he and max quickly began forking noodles into their mouth. by into, i mean all over themselves with one or two noodles reaching the desired destination. thinking quickly, brad zipped up bear's coat so most stray sauce and noodles landed there. in a matter of minutes, bear was covered head to toe. as i was starving, and nursing at the time, i reached gracefully over the table to get my own forkfuls of which landed equally gracefully all over ayla and me. brad inhaled his meal. i asked for more bread to mop up and fill the hole of hunger remaining in my belly after the majority of my meal was consumed by my sons. we were out of there in about 20 minutes all together. i was laughing the entire meal, brad was sweating, ayla was nursing, max and wes were spilling.

oh what a night

though there were plenty of differences from that first romantic rendezvous at carinos, the love between brad and i was magnified. there he was, my handsome hubby, choking down his supper and doing heroic damage control for the spillage dripping off our sweet and adorable boys. our eyes met across the table and there was no mistaking the love, adoration, and joy of having entertaining and exciting date nights now that we have three little blessings.

how romantic!