Oh, let me tell you about my night.

Last Friday, the director of Green Hill, where Nate gets his therapy, invited us to a dinner this Friday at the Galt House. They got a grant from Kosair Children's Charities, and they asked all grant recipients to bring a kid and their family with them to the dinner. Well, it was very nice of him to choose us, and Blake and I both were super excited to eat at the Galt House, a very nice Louisville restaurant we could normally not afford to go to!

We were supposed to be there for pictures with the Green Hill people at 4:30. We had music class and hippotherapy today, so I rushed around last minute to find us all something to wear. (There is a point to this. Wait for it.) Blake came straight from work, so he wore slacks and a button down shirt. Nate wore gray cargo pants and a cute plaid button down shirt. Georgia wore a little dress with a big hairbow. And I wore black pants and a blue top with sparklies on top and my sensible black suede slip on shoes. We were dressed like we were going to church, I guess. Well, we got there, and people were dressed to the nines. Party dresses. Suits and ties. High heels and sparkly handbags. Wraps. Sequins! Oh no!!!!! We were grossly underdressed, and I was so embarrassed. Why didn't anyone tell me it was semi-formal?!!!! Seriously, I was mortified.

We had our picture taken and then there was kind of a cocktail hour type thing in the lobby outside the ballroom. Not exactly kid friendly, so we let Nate walk around less crowded areas, and I went to the powder room to feed Georgia. She promptly spit up puddles of milk all over both of us. Fantastic. Then she had a blowout diaper and got poo on her outfit. At that point, I laughed out loud.

Finally, the doors opened and we could go in the ballroom. The wait staff had already set the tables with salads and dessert. Anyone who knows Nate could predict what would happen when he saw the cake. He wanted it right then. And asking a 3 year old cake lover to sit and look at cake and not eat it is just torture. So we let him eat it. Then as everyone ate their salads, Nate started getting antsy. I took him out to the lobby, where we went up and down the escalators, went to the bathroom to wash our hands (a new favorite activity of his), played follow the leader, and did anything I could think of to entertain him for awhile. Then I saw that the main course was being served, so we went back in. Well guess what--they ran out of kids meals. The waitress said they were making more and would bring one to Nate when it was available, but that never happened. He ate a few bites of Blake's dinner and a roll and called it a day.

I will say that the food was excellent. I believe it was a pecan crusted chicken with caramelized pecans on top, with steamed vegetables, an excellent salad, and cake that was to die for. It was like chocolate cake, topped with a layer of fudge, topped with a layer of dulce de leche. It would have been nice to eat this food while it was hot ... or without a baby in one arm ... but you can't be picky about such things.

Nate started getting antsy again, but then it was time for the "Parade of Children." The kids were to follow this "ice cream man" around the room, weaving in and out of tables, dancing to the music, while everyone in the room applauded for them. Our friend Jennifer from the Spina Bifida Association of Kentucky brought her daughter Gracie, and she offered to walk with Nate in the parade. Nate thought this was a great plan until he realized I wasn't there, and Jennifer had to bring him back to me crying "mama mama mama," which is really unlike him. So I did the parade with him. I might have been the only parent in the parade, and the ice cream man said that if parents joined the parade they had to dance .... So Nate and I, in our embarassingly casual outfits, danced around the room, in and out of tables, while fancily dressed people clapped for us. Then Nate fell and started crying, so I scooped him up and danced faster to the end of the parade!

Next up was the presentation part of the evening, when they announced who got grants and how much and also presented awards. Okay, I am so thankful that Kosair Children's Charities does what they do. But. It took forever. The room was quiet as everyone listened to whichever speaker was on stage at the moment, except for Nate loudly talking about his trains. So for the next hour or more, Blake and I switched off taking him out to the lobby, back in, repeat. Nate was so tired, and there was just no way to expect a child to sit still and be quiet through such a long program. In fact, I have to say that although it was nice for them to invite children, it was almost like they were just there for the photo ops. There was nothing for the children to do, and it was just exhausting for the parents. Well, for us, at least.

As I was sitting with Nate just outside the doors of the ballroom, a very kind lady walked out toward the restrooms and looked and Nate and said, "He has made all of us smile this evening." God bless her. :) Nate wanted to go back in and see Daddy, so he promised me he would crawl under the table and play quietly with his trains. Well, he LIED! haha. He walked back in this quiet room yelling, "Daddy! Where are you?!!!" People chuckled.

By the end of the evening, I realized it was for the best that I dressed the way I did. I couldn't have fed Georgia in a party dress (um, not like I own a party dress anyway), and I couldn't chase Nate in high heels. Such is the life of a mother of young children, I guess. There will be opportunities for party dresses later on. So the night wasn't as fun as I had thought it would be. But it was ... comical. And, um, memorable. That's the best I can do tonight. :)