Chicken feed?

Dining out is fun, but with a little person in-tow, it could at times become quite an unbearable experience.

He started off so adorable - sitting there in his high chair, munching on crackers, smiling at us.

And when he had enough to eat, he decided to share his food with the less fortunate and hungry. Breaking his crackers up into bits and dropping them on the floor, he got his chirpy feathered friends all flocked around him, pecking in delight.

But when he got bored playing philanthropist, he started looking for other things to keep himself busy. An empty pair of hands is all it takes to drive this little guy nuts. He has to have something to fiddle with all the time! Sugar packets, napkins, pieces of food, whatever convenient manipulatives available. There's no problem with that, except for the fact that he doesn't just hold on to them; he'll tear them up, toss them around, drop them deliberately... You get the drift.

As we ran out of child-safe objects to hand over to him, we sat watching helplessly as that tiny gleaming halo over his head morphed into a little pair of shiny horns right before our eyes. He reached over to grab anything within a 2-arm radius around him, kicked himself up in attempt to escape the highchair, waved his arms dramatically and vocalising with intense emotions exactly what his intentions were, while getting totally frustrated that these boneheads around him couldn't take simple instructions and just get him out of the chair!

We never thought dining could ever be a challenging task to accomplish, but obviously we thought wrong. So, we have carefully thought it over and strategized how we can enjoy our next fine meal out:

Execute "Battle Plan Babysitter"!