A Ball of Dough is All It Takes
Baby A does pretty well in restaurants most of the time. I won't promise quietude, or lack of motion, because that never happens (unless she's sleeping, and that doesn't happen much, either). But she can usually manage to keep her little hurricane of activity going within the horizontal and vertical space of her chair, or—even better for us—her allotted space in the booth. She never stops talking and laughing, but she rarely shouts these days.
Yet, the usual things restaurants offer to keep kids quiet don't work for Baby A. I'm sure there are many kids who will sit and color with crayons. Mine is not one of them, even at three years old. Seems it's just not tactile enough for her. We read the little placemat cartoon-y things to her, but that takes, what, less than a minute, and it's over.
This post at Foodmomiac mentions one great solution: a small ball of pizza dough, handed out at their local pizza place. We had a similar experience at a nearby Fresh Mex place, part of a small chain that makes tortillas fresh to order. The cooks there handed A. a little ball of tortilla dough, and it was miraculous. She stayed in the booth and worked it and worked it until our food was ready, and even while we ate she took little breaks to smoosh the dough another time.
Of course, it looked like a disgusting ball of fuzz and crumbs before long, and she tried to take a bite once (looking all the while at me like, is this okay? Cause I know it isn't and I'm seeing if you're going to react...).
A simple ball of dough does it for us, and costs the restaurant very little. Or, I'm thinking, if we know it won't harm the table at the place we're going, maybe we could even pack one of those mini-cans of Play-Doh. What are other solutions that help keep your kids seated until the food comes?
