Pre-birthday dinner (and a show)

Grandma & Grandpa O'Neal thought it wisest to wait to buy Isaac's birthday presents until they were here, since as soon as they hit Toys R Us their wallet starts ejecting money and this would surely cause them to exceed their baggage allowance on the flight over. One of our favorite restaurants, Red Robin, is conveniently located over the nearest Toys R Us. We went there tonight for a pre-birthday dinner:


And we convinced the Red Robin folk to sing "Happy Birthday" to Isaac. It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO CUTE I couldn't hold back my very first mommy birthday tears. The waiter gathered all these server/hostess girls Isaac was flirting with throughout our meal to sing, and he loudly proclaimed "Attention, Red Robin guests -- we would like you to join us in helping Isaac celebrate his *first* birthday" ...which of course elicited lots of "awwww"s from nearby patrons. And then the wonderful Red Robin employees sang my baby "Happy Birthday" at the top of their lungs and clapped in rhythm, and my darling show-stealer baby grinned as big as can be and clapped and DANCED along with them:


I seriously thought I was going to lose it completely. I mean, here is my precious baby, who a scant 12 months ago was little more than a fuzzy lump, and now he is dancing and clapping (occasionally in rhythm, might I add) and entertaining a crowd. Could a mother be any prouder?

The real fun came after dinner, when we basically let Isaac test-drive every toy in Toys R Us to hand-pick the best ones for himself. I highly recommend this method of birthday present shopping, as I think it was maybe more fun for us big people than even for Isaac, which is saying something.