My Nephew is not a Cheap Date

I had the pleasure of babysitting Z this afternoon.

Since I live so close to Royal Oak and if Z had a choice he would just eat McDonald's, I have started the tradition of taking him out for "new food", meaning restaurants that his parents (bless their hearts and patience) would never take him to eat. I also allow him to order off the adult menu, which makes him feel very grown up and gives me the behavioral nagging of "if you order off the adult menu, you have to act like an adult." This cuts down on the wiggling and the dipping under the table (except to get our napkin 27 times).

Today was the Belgian restaurant on Main. Z considered the Fish and Chips, which would be new, as his mother does not eat fish ("NOTHING FROM THE SEA!" my brother will shout about her, "she touches nothing from the sea . . .") but settled on the steak sandwich. The steak sandwich turned out to be a bad idea . . . it had onions on it and evidently Z hates onions. He has the kind of loathing (already? The kid is seven) that if an onion touches something, well, it's just ruined. He choked down half the sandwich for me and politely asked for the rest to be wrapped. He liked dessert much more and we had a very good discussion about the word tart and it's two possible meanings.

We then went to the "skeleton store" again and watched a German couple buy matching red patent leather outfits. We walked up to see the real train on the tracks. We went to Old Navy and bought a skeleton shirt. We discussed the coming movie "The Corpse Bride" and how we both very much wanted to see it . . . his mom is going to let him go because it is PG. We did some homework: Reading about a funny octopus and answering many questions. We bought more scary stuff at Target . . . one dollar spooky fingers, one for each of his fingers with long black nails. They glow in the dark. We discussed Germany -- Mr. Crabbypants does not live there, as Z thought, but goes there often. All in all a great day. But not cheap at all.