Baby Squared

Totally, the early-bird special is the way to go.  We also have more success when we go out for lunch (also on the early side).  Glad your outing was such as success!

And yes, first day of summer my ass.  BOO!

6:15 is even late for us!  We are headed to dinner in thirty minutes at 3:30.  It is nice to go out though!  Good job for doing it!!

Good for you! We now call it "going out to eat" when we drive through McDonalds and eat in the parking lot with the girls still in their car seats! (17 month old twins). We've only once attempted a real restaurant recently and all ate out on the deck. It felt a little more acceptable to be out in the "wild."

smart lady... that's what we do with our little guy. He's always starting to hit his wall just as all the regulard dinner folks are arriving so we are able to sneak out before the true freak outs begin and sometimes we can hit Lowes or Target on the way home... interesting how Friday nights have evolved for us!

Love the early bird special. Sounds like a fun Friday night! Love restaurants who quickly bring bread to the table. Lunch at Bertuccie's is a good time - bread, salad, dough and crayons to play with - all within 5 minutes of sitting down. And the fact that it's noisy no longer seems like a con when dining with a toddler.

We had Father's Day dinner at a restaurant (with our extended family) at 4:30 tonight!  The food arrived by 5:15 and all four kids were happy (and so were the seven grown-ups).

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess based on your description that you went to SoundBites -- never thought to go there for dinner with little ones, but it's actually a great idea.  We live in Cambridge not far from Full Moon and my other issue with them is that for the price of the food, it should actually be a little bit better.  Another decent (though also overpriced) option for an early dinner with kids that we like a lot is Summer Shack over by Alewife.  If you get there between 5:30 and 6:30 you don't have to wait for a table, there are lots of families with kids, the wait staff are pretty patient, and you can always take a walk over to look at the lobster tank if the kids get squirmy.

Micah and I before kids used to go out to eat dinner at like 4 pm.  We ate like old people.  Micah always wanted to eat as soon as he got home from work at 3:30, he went into work super early like 6:30.  So we would go out and not only did we either get Early Bird Specials or lunch prices, but the restaurants were never crowded.  It was always just us and a bunch of old people. :)  Now we eat at 5:30 when the boys do.  I used to not eat all day and then eat at 4 or 3:30 when Micah got home.  Now I eat a litle bit throughout the day.

I never did understand why people would have babies out at restaurants past 8 pm.  Surely it was close to or past their bedtime?  No wonder they kids looked miserable and were fussing.  You have to work within your child's schedule. What time do the girls normally eat?  That is the time that you go out to eat then.  Changing meal times for toddlers is just disaster waiting to happen.  

Oh yeah and it is definitely Summer here in TN.  We can only go outside to play like first thing in the morning. We have to come in by 10:30 because it has been 90+ degrees everyday!!!!  I kinda don't like it because we have been staying outside all day and now we are stuck back inside. If my boys would get in the kiddie pool or play in the sprinkler we could stay out longer, but they won't so then their little cheeks get too red and they look overheated and we have to go in. :P

We always go for the early bird - get to the restaurant at 530 or so, baby eats by 6, everyone is happy.  Ta-da!

If you feel like braving Harvard Square, our baby (well, 20 months) loves Pho (now Le's) and the restaurant is loud enough to cover toddler yells.  :)

This is probably less of an option in Cambridge, but around here (Research Triangle area of NC) we do pretty well going to areas where the restaurants mostly cater to business lunches.  They're often open at dinner, but pretty empty, thus minimizing the chances that we're going to terminally annoy someone with our crowd's noise.

Timing is everything, but noise is a double-edged sword.  A noisy restaurant can mask a toddler's yells, but can also add to that toddler's stress level.

Elsa and Michael are a lot alike.  We call him the little Hoover.  He eats almost anything, except things that all kids are supposed to love, mac & cheese and french fries.  He'll sample a little bit, but generally passes.  Yet will eat a ton of salad with vinaigrette.

I am so glad you corroborated my unspoken feelings about the staff at Full Moon. The service there leaves so much to be desired but it seems to be the default "family space" in West Cambridge. The food used to be edible until recently and adults could enjoy the child-free fare after 8 pm. (Adults sans children tend to be cordoned off like toxic poultry in the 3-table screened area before that time.) It used to be a lovely, eccentric, fun neighborhood space before they made the decision to become aggressively "kid friendly" and has become an absolute nightmare in the evening with frantically networking parents and screaming, exhausted children who just want (and need) to go to bed.

I hear you all too, one thing we also be sure to do is order something for our (21-month) twins as soon as we sit down and have them bring it our before our meal.  Then we feed them and try to distract them with straws and toys while we eat.

That is an absolutely adorable pic of Elsa!

I would LOVE to take that cutie pie to dinner!!! I'd much rather have a child that  wants to eat and eat and eat loudly than one that won't. We are out in the burb's of NJ , we favour Macarconi's as a place to take our 3 year old twin girls. It's a chain that doesn't look like a chain restaurant, dimly lit, flowers, paper on the tables and crayons, a nice hot loaf to start with, usually produced quickly. My girls like their olive oil and olives.  We do try to remember to supplement the crayons supplied because they only have "eggplant", "parmesan" and " peppers" (or something like that LOL). Food is reasonable, they give me a huge tumbler of the house chianti- I must look as though I need it desperately. The girls inhale their alfredo and often  let us have their ice creams . On occasion they have had live opera singing, you can always go watch the open kitchen or learn italian in the bathroom. Our outings of recent times have become much more "pleasant" with our brood. We now find Japanese restaurants to be very family friendly- the staff will always fawn over the girls, giggle at their demands for "chicken noodle soup " (this covers chinese,italian and japanese), a tepanyaki bar is always a kid pleaser (entertainment AND chicken noodle soup). And our big almost 10 year old girl gets her raw salmon and mochi ball fix so she's happy too. My hope is to be able to enjoy an Indian meal with them  next !

You kidding me? I'd love to take that beautiful girl out to a restaurant. The women would be all over me.