Generally, when we go out to eat with the kids they drink either lemonade or milk. They rarely want water and we don’t let them have soda too often.

When we go to a restaurant that doesn’t have lemonade, things get a little tricky.  I was at such a place with my youngest a couple months ago. When I asked him what he wanted to eat, he said “Chicken!”

“Okay,” I agreed.

“Chicken and Lemonade!”

“Oh, sorry. They don’t have that here.”

“Ohhh…Okay. Chicken and Milkshake!”

“How about chicken and milk instead?”

“Ohhh…Okay.”

When the waitress arrived he asked her “please can I have some chicken?”. The waitress was instantly smitten. She exclaimed how cute it was that he asked for chicken and pretended to steal his nose. Then she took the rest of our order and left.

After a little while, the drinks arrived. As she was putting them on the table, the little guy (who wasn’t quite three yet) put his hands to his face in horror. “Wait! Where’s my milkshake? You forgot my milkshake!”

She stopped in the middle of taking the milk off her the tray. She looked horrified. “Milkshake? I thought you said milk! I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. I’ll go get it right away.” She turned and hurried off, completely missing me saying “no, it’s okay. He didn’t… We didn’t…”

When she came back with the milkshake, the little con artist smiled at her. “I love milkshakes.”

To all those waiters and waitresses out there, the next time a two year old tells you he ordered a milkshake… Ask his parents!