Cheesecake!

What's a family of three to do after 48 hours of driving rain? Go out to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, of course! The wait was surprisingly short, an unexpected bonus for sure. When the host gave me the buzzer, he said about 20 minutes...but lo and behold, it went off after only 8! How can I be so exact you ask? Well, my watch has a timer and since I usually complain when the wait at a restaurant goes way over--I like to be specific when I fly off the handle :) Dan will also tell you that I have "padded" the given wait time in the past so that we can stay instead of having to go somewhere else. I'm not a good liar, but when I have a food craving, everyone must wait it out!

Finley slept through the short wait and conveniently decided to wake up right after we ordered. Arg. We used to go through entire meals with appetizers and dessert without a peep from our precious boy, but he's more aware of the world now and doesn't want to miss out. Double arg.

The good news is, he will sometimes just sit on our laps and look around pleasantly at all the people and lights. He did that for a while, but later we had to take turns holding, bouncing, and eventually walking him around the restaurant. Ah well. During one lap around the host's table, we stopped to drool over all the cheesecakes in the pastry window and a man came up and asked how old our little man was. We chatted and he told me that he was a stay-at-home-dad to 2 boys for 12 years! Kudos to him! Finley turned to look at this nice fellow and for the first time (to my knowledge), Finley smiled at someone who isn't in his face all day everyday! What a proud moment for me...though as he grows up, making nice with strangers will be need to be frowned upon :( I'll take it for now, though!

We could not pass up having dessert since it is the place's namesake, so we ordered a slice to share and hoped that Finley would accommodate this mealtime extension. He was willing to pose for a few photos while we waited, the camera's always a great distraction! Too bad, the table across from us was a better one :(

Our Wild Blueberry Swirl cheesecake (with white chocolate mousse on top!) arrived and we dug in. Dan's an expert at bouncing Finley while eating, so we were both able to devour it at an equal pace. Fair is fair, even when it comes to cheesecake.

We finished it in record time while Finley enjoyed holding onto a straw (forget expensive toys). As we licked our lips (and forks), Finley reached out to see if there was any left.

Sorry, buddy!