When a five year old starts to run the show

Someone needs to intervene.

Today, we decided we would go out to lunch after the younger two and I came home from the preschool adventure party (which was a lot of fun). So I had mentioned Applebee's because they have those good Weight Watchers selections, and the points are already figured. Well, Evan decides that is what he wants, too so he gets all ready to go. Then Patrick said something about The Red Pig Inn (somewhere Patrick has wanted to go for a LOOONNNGGG time), so I say sure, let's go see what the wait is.

Well, Evan wanted to know why we were stopping there. Where's Daddy going? Why is he going in there? Aren't we going to Applebees? But you SAID we were going to Applebees. I've never eaten here before. Have I been here before? Well, what was it before? What? Diamond River? I never ate there before. I did? When? I don't remember that. I wanted to go to Applebees. Well, ok, I guess I don't feel like Applebees. Well, yes I do. I love the food there, I love the plates, I love the servers, I love the drinks, I love the apple.

Daddy comes out to let us know there is no waiting, so we head on in.

Are you sure I have been here before? I have never seen this place before. I don't remember this at all.

Then during lunch, he is moping in his chair because, well, it isn't Applebees. I asked him if he was feeling well (he said yes). I asked him why he was so surly, and he didn't say anything.

At that point, I said that we weren't going to Applebees, and he better be happy about it.

I mean, he was so ticked that he wasn't at Applebees that after I ordered his chocolate milk, he said "I want regular milk." One of those .. if I can't have Applebees, I don't want to enjoy this either.

He cheered up when his food was delivered, and he ate some of my BBQ pulled pork from my quesidilla. When he finished, he exclaimed that he loved me (all was forgiven), and we moved on with our afternoon.

Patrick helped Evan do his crossword puzzle on the front of the kids' menu. Let me lay down a little background first.

Patrick loves to do puzzles like this. He loves crosswords, but isn't a real fan of word finds. The things that make you think, that is what Patrick likes. When we were at the University of Kentucky, our school newspaper put out the Kernel. It had a crossword puzzle. This was a daily paper (I think ... maybe weekly). Anyway ... Patrick loved to do the crossword puzzle in it.

He didn't like to make mistakes in crossword puzzles. Ever. Can you imagine his horror when he found out that he was dating a crossword puzzle slob? I didn't care if I made mistakes (and I did .. a lot). I would just write over the letter that I messed up, and it got really ugly when I would get it wrong more than once. I always thought I knew what word went in those boxes, and when that wasn't the word, I had to look over at Patrick's because he would have mentally worked out those spaces before he put pen to paper.

So... here we are in the Red Pig Inn, and the first question is "Pig Pasta." Well, I said Pighetti (because that was a menu choice for the kids) and Patrick just starts writing, willy nilly. I was rather taken aback. The man who thought everything through was going out on a limb and acting all crazy and putting in the first thing his wife said, that same crossword puzzle slob. Well, it was actually spaghetti, so Patrick had to correct that with his red crayon.

The next clue was "What color is the pig outside?" Well ... red. But Patrick had 10 letters to fill out for a three-letter word. Red... him... what other colors ... scarlet, nope. Red HAS to be it. So instead of looking harder at the puzzle, he throws caution to the wind and writes out REEEEEEED in those 10 boxes.

Then he looks down (and I had seen it already) to the three boxes, with the D already given, right below that.

The word that was supposed to go in those 10 boxes was "restaurant."

I am starting to lose faith in my husband. ;)