Day 30: Hibachi Celebration

We decided to do something special to celebrate Day 30 of our Adoption Year, and since the tattoo place was closed, we settled on a Japanese hibachi dinner. We thought Rex would appreciate cooking that was familiar--at least from the same continent--as well as waiters who look like him more than we do. The four of us took our seats around the big hibachi grill, ordered, and were soon eating our appetizers. Rex loved his soup, and as I looked around at my happy family, I sighed satisfyingly. This was a good idea.

We had four, maybe five minutes of bliss until the chef sprayed oil on his grill and lit the thing on fire. Even before the flames exploded and we could feel the heat on our faces, Rex started wailing. I quickly grabbed Rex from his high chair and held him close, turning him away from the evil grill. Soon he calmed down--I had distracted him with chopsticks--and he could once again face the chef. The chef seemed to be prepared for this kind of reaction because he held up a little man and said, "No pwoblem, he put out fire-ah." Then he squeezed the little man and water sprayed out, right into Rex' face.

Nice, thanks Iron Chef. Rex started crying again, and so Colette moved him over with her, the farthest away from Iron Chef as possible. He apologized to me and all I was thinking was, "I hope you don't throw broccoli at my boy." I've eaten here before and that's part of their thing. They throw broccoli at you and you try to catch it in your mouth. Well, thank God he caught on and didn't toss any vegetables at Rex. He must have attended sensitivity training, which taught him that if first the fire scares the boy, and then if spraying water in his face doesn't fix it, then you skip hurling broccoli at him. After Iron Chef left, Rex calmed down, ate his whole meal, and we had a lovely time. Maybe next time I'll settle for the tattoo.