Justin finally got back to Boston tonight after a long week of traveling.  We had planned to have an intimate dinner together at Salvatore’s while Robbie played upstairs at Imajine That.  Unfortunately, there were no openings for Robbie…  So, Justin and I did what we do best; we improvised with a family date to Chuck E. Cheese.

As soon as we pulled up, Robbie was itching to get out of his car seat, telling me, “Go ride Chuck E. Cheese, Mom.”  On the way in the door, he offered to hold the tokens from our last trip, claiming, “Big money helper, Mom.”  As soon as we were through the door, Robbie was off to play games.  He wasn’t worried about sticking to his parents, and, at one point, we found him feeding tokens into a firetruck game.  And he had, on his own, earned twenty tickets.  Every time he missed his target, he let out an, “Oh, man!  No tickets!”  At least he wasn’t saying, “Shit!  No tickets!”

Robbie was a big fan of the pretend tea cups, which was actually a cup of hot chocolate with dancing marshmallows.  He would come to the table, get a sip of lemonade, a bite of pizza, and a token before running to climb into the mug.  He slid his token into the slot and sat back in the seat.  As he started to spin, he waved, shouting, “Hey, Mom!  Hey, Dad!” with a huge grin on his face.  And then, when the ride stopped, he would repeat the whole process.

At the end of the night, Robbie earned a few pieces of candy and a nice ball.  And the requisite balloon.  On our way out the door, he gave me a big hug and kiss and said, “Fun family date, Mom.”  It’s definitely not the Friday night I envisioned, but it was pretty fabulous nonetheless.