Cooper had a special night tonight (PICS). He got to have dinner with his cousin Ford from Austin. Aunt Heather brought Ford up yesterday so he could stay with GrandMother until Saturday... and they joined Cooper and I for dinner at Celebration tonight. Cooper thought it was so cool to see Ford and to have another kid at the dinner table. The small, divided dining rooms at Celebration already make for a pretty loud environment and noise levels like that can really amp kids up. So, Cooper and Ford were hollering and laughing at each other across the table. I was cognizant of how much noise they were making and I tried to keep them from screaming, but it is hard to keep Cooper quiet now that he is such a chatterbox and, besides, they were having fun and enjoying each other.

But that wasn't the opinion of the old woman sitting behind me. She was NOT happy that she was sitting next to children. The truth is, I can understand because she probably has a hearing aid which doesn't work well when you are in a noisy place anyway, but she was just plain nasty about it. She made a couple of comments about it to her companion (obviously a nurse of some kind) but I didn't pick up on it much until she complained to the waiter about being seated in the same room with children (who she thinks need their own room). This is a recent pet peeve of mine, by-the-way. I heard some DJs on the radio talking about this the other day. The girl complained about someone bringing their two month old to a movie and confronted her about it. The new mom said something like, "Well we need a night out too," and the DJ said, "She should have thought about that before having a kid." I mean seriously... I am not taking any baby to the movies, but that is the kind of attitude that ticks me off.

I mean these kids were laughing and playing, NOT crying and this woman actually complained to the manager. Keep in mind that she was sitting literally 6 feet behind me and I had to strain to make out what she was saying... the room was that loud. But I picked up a comment about kids hollering, and the manager saying that it is a restaurant that families often come to, and then the icing on the cake when she said that, "In MY day, parents knew how to control their children and not let them run amok." Whatever. In HER day, families ate at home. In MY day, families eat out more often than not, and at a restaurant like Celebration (or our other favorite family spot, Rafa's) you have to be prepared for that... these places CATER to families. I mean we weren't at The Mansion or Bob's, it was freakin' Celebration!

I had just finished a glass of wine and was tempted to say a few choice words to this woman... like, next time ASK to sit away from kind or GO SOMEWHERE ELSE. In fact, she was rude enough to talk about us with us sitting right there, so she was asking for it. But, I didn't. That is not me. Call me a weenie, but I just shot her an ugly look on the way out the door.

But, as you can tell, fun ensued once we got home. Cooper and Ford played together which I think is huge. Maybe you can tell from the pictures that Cooper has a game he loves where someone (in this case Ford, but usually Daddy) builds a structure with blocks or magnets and Cooper knocks it down. Cooper L-O-V-E-S that game... although I wonder if it is a bad thing for daycare. Anyway, they played so well together and had a wonderful time. We were glad to see Ford, even if he and Cooper like to be loud. Good for them!!