"mom...we need another date..."

Mya has been itching for a date with mom or dad. She asks me everyday if we can go ice skating or swimming or to the drink place (Sonic). My normal response: "Maybe tomorrow," which she now sadly interprets as never going to happen. To break the trend, I finally surprised her Saturday morning and said we were going to go on a family date if everyone behaved and took good naps. After two hours of struggling to get her down for her usual nap, I had decided the date was off. She flipped out. She marched herself and Mr. Bear down the short hallway and into my room, slamming the door behind her. She was asleep in minutes.

She came running out to the living room pleading with me to go on the date. She said, and I quote, "Mommy, I'm sorry I didn't sleep. But I did sleep on your bed and I helped my brain. Now can we go. I really want to go." Too hot (literally) to fight her sweet apology, I agreed. We packed up and headed to Chuck e Cheese--or most parents' worst nightmare.

Chuck e Cheese, especially on a Saturday night, is home to a particular crowd. The type of crowd running around without shoes on their feet, peeing in dark corners, fighting over tickets and licking pizza from the corners of their mouth. We normally avoid this group and frequent this particular fun house in the morning. But we braved the crowd and even bought a pizza. (We had a really good coupon.) The coupon gave us 40 tokens, and you should've seen the way Mya's eyes sparkled when she saw all the "monies" in the cheap, plastic cup. We played tons of games and rode several rides and laughed until at our feeble attempt to win tickets. We aren't really ticket people. Mya is just satisfied if she leaves the place with a 10-ticket candy, which is what she normally ends up with since I usually only bring $2 or $3 to Chuck e Cheese. However and much to our surprise, we ended up with 100 tickets at the end of the night. Our little princess took her ticket receipt right up to the counter and asked for the purple princess ring. Did you think she'd ask for anything else? Nope. She was so happy and has been ever since. She insists on sleeping with that dang ring.

We finally escaped the arcade chaos and entered the normal world after nearly two hours. How in the world did we last that long in that place? I don't really know. I usually last thirty minutes. We drove to our new favorite ice cream spot and split a "banana barge." V was in heaven with the ice cream. It was a really successful date night.