Compliments from strangers

I have to admit that I love getting compliments from strangers about my kids.  I don't really care for the "oh they are so cute" comments, because sometimes I get a little weirded out by the people that are all goo-goo over my children (is that strange?), but I love the feeling that people noticed if my children were well-behaved.  In part I think this is because I loved it when that happened for my parents when I was young.  My dad, for example, would always tell us if someone complimented him on how good we were behaved (and sometimes we witnessed those compliments being given too), and I just remember how good I felt that we made him proud of us for being well-behaved enough that someone else noticed and took the time to mention it.

So now that I have my own children it is also nice for me when this happens.  It happened a few times on flights when we traveled with Evan as a baby (and even on one of our last flights to Australia with both kids).  I think people that board planes and sit next to babies and toddlers fear the worst (I know I always did!), and so when it's not too bad they feel compelled to let us know.  That is always nice.

But my favorite compliment so far came when we were out to dinner last night.  There was an older couple at the table next to us who I overhead talking about what Evan was eating.  They said "Excuse me, did your son just eat an olive?"  I told him no, he had just had a blackberry from my salad.  Either way, they seemed surprised and applauded his adventurous palate.  Then they watched as he took bites from both John's caesar salad and my spinach salad.  He nibbled on red bell pepper (aka capsicum in Australia), and spinach and romaine lettuce leaves.  They were amazed.  And when I told them that he does actually like black olives (it's currently his favorite pizza topping, crazy I know!?), their jaws dropped.  What I refrained from telling them, however, was that he rarely eats his veggies just yet and this display of eating our salads was somewhat rare.  But I enjoyed it.  I loved that Evan was eating so well, trying new things, and behaving so good too.  And Emma did great as well.  She spent the whole dinner in her carseat propped up on a high chair.  She was awake and just played with her toys or watched us.  She didn't make a peep until it was about time to go (aka her bedtime anyway).  Such an angel!

As that couple got up to leave they told us that we were doing a great job as parents and the kids were so well-behaved and good eaters.  I did tell them that it is not always this way (flashback to a horrible restaurant experience with Evan around 1-year-old at PF Changs where John had to leave the restaurant with him because he was screaming and prior to that he had thrown everything within his reach off the table and onto the floor).  They said they knew the feeling, but their little ones were all grown up now.

After they left, I looked at John and smiled. I told him how I've been waiting for this day to come.  And of course I made sure to tell Evan on our way home just how proud I was of him for being so good.  We told him that since we all liked that restaurant and he behaved so well, that we'll have to go there again.  I think he was pretty excited about that.  And honestly I am too.  If he's able to eat well and behave out like that, we'll be much more likely to do it more often.