When Dad Has an All Nighter

As far as he can tell, Tanner is the only one in his class of 60 who is married, let alone has children (and he has three!) Most of his classmates are at the school until late into the evening, whereas Tanner tries to be home for supper at 7:00. We push our supper back later so that we can have Tanner there and eat as a family. But, there are some days nights, that Tanner just can't make it home . . . at all. So I pack up the girls and we have supper with him close to campus. Tanner really appreciates that we come to him these nights, as it breaks up his evening of school work.

Our new favourite place to eat is Sicilian Pizza, for three reasons.

1. It's a block from his building.

2. It feeds our family for only $11.50

3. It's pretty darn good pizza!

On our first time visiting, June had a full diaper. The smelly kind. Not wanting to change her in the Sicilian Pizza's bathroom (the store didn't speak cleanliness), I ran over to Yeh! (a Menchies knock-off) which seemed a better option. Clean it was, but spacious to was not. Being slightly bigger than an airplane bathroom I was forced to change June on the ground (at least it was clean, right?). The smell of June's done-did business was especially bad, but I was ill prepared for it and did not have a baggie to put it in before disposing it into the garbage. Sorry Yeh! employee who glared at me from the bathroom door as I waited at the cross-walk. One day when you are a mom you will understand that, sometimes, things happen.

Our pizza was still not ready by the time I returned, but I walked in on some loud club tunes and my daughters breakin' it down.

Pizza was then enjoyed by all, especially by Tanner.

After finishing our pizza I looked over at Yeh! across the way and feeling bad for the stink-up I caused in the bathroom, I thought that we should at least give them our patronage. The frozen yogurt shop is set up to look exactly like Menchies all the way down to the famous pink cups. But it is not Menchies. The frozen yogurt was watery and the flavours were not that great. Well, at least my conscience was clear. Also, the store itself was as cramped as the bathroom was small, and there was no seating for us inside. We ended up sitting on a stone wall in front of a church nearby to eat. It was a nippy evening and after only a few minutes both Gwen and Lily were shaking. Neither were willing to stop eating their dessert, though.

They were little sugar zombies.

"Can't stop."

* shiver *

"Must finish."

* shake *

As the evening went on, it came closer to the time that we would leave Tanner at school and head home. It was sad to know that he would be staying up all night working while we were headed home to our comfy beds. I did, however, bring him a pillow to keep in his studio "just in case". His studio area is pretty sweet as it is equipped with couches and even a kitchenette.

Tanner has had a couple all-nighters already and I'm sure he will have plenty more. I know that they are hard on him and us (we miss him), but I will always look forward to having a pizza night out.