Dinner with Sydney

I had planned to make a new recipe for beef stroganoff tonight, but I forgot that I had to make it in the slow cooker -- something I discovered at 5:40, so I called an audible and decided to take Rachel out to dinner (Drew was at a Girl Scout cookie meeting, since he has graciously agreed to be Cookie Dude again this year and manage the troop's cookie sales).

Sydney and her mom were going to dinner at a restaurant in Tyson's Square mall, and they invited us along. I followed behind Nicole because I wasn't sure how to get there. I made Rachel do her homework in the car, and even though I didn't have a pencil, she filled it out in pen and got all the answers correct, even in her "challenge packet" homework, which is slightly more advanced than what she's learning in class.

We went to a nice place, and all was going well until dessert, when Sydney pitched a fit when her aunt (Nicole's sister) wouldn't let her have some of her dessert because Sydney wouldn't share hers (she gobbled hers down before the rest of us had gotten ours, and her aunt chided her for being impolite). Then she started roughhousing with Rachel and pulled on Rachel's hands (they were both underneath the table at this point) so hard that I told her sharply to STOP IT. Then, she decided to walk out of the restaurant and I called out to her "Sydney! SYDNEY!" while the others were behind me. "Where do you think you're going???" I demanded when she got to the edge of the restaurant.

At that point Nicole was behind me, and I tried to explain that I had yelled at her kid because I was worried she'd get lost in the mall. She brushed it off, saying that Sydney does that a lot but then usually turns around, expecting people to be following her.

We said our goodbyes -- Nicole had promised Sydney a visit to the candy shop in the mall, which Rachel didn't even ask to do (and I was glad, because I would have said no), and then she got teary eyed and began crying a bit. She motioned for us to sit down on some cushioned benches nearby, and I took her on my lap and said, "What's the matter, sweetie?"

"This evening didn't go the way I wanted it to!" she said, crying. "I wish it had been more calm!"

And then, before I could respond, she said, "And, truth be told, I think Nicole should be firmer with Sydney."

Astonished, I said, "You mean, like Daddy and me?"

"YES," she said.

Never say that 7-year-olds don't know exactly what's going on around them. Or that they don't crave boundaries, which is why Rachel is the way she is and Sydney is the way she is.