Trying a New Restaurant

Today's gift is trying a new restaurant.

Two days in a row of taking my daughter to a new restaurant....woohoo!

I remember the days we could not go out to eat.  Whether it was due to behaviors, not being able to sit still and be patient, screams and high pitch noises...we just never went out.  It also led to one of us leaving the restaurant early...which was not fun.

Then slowly we began to transition her going back to restaurants.  We would bring her electronics (back then her iPod), edibles, eat early (like 5:00...on the nose), and we would visit the same restaurant over and over and over again to get her used to going out.

As I have always said with everything we do with her repetition is key.

She became used to going out to eat to the point we were not only able to introduce her to another restaurant to be able to put a new one into our rotation, but we were able to slowly fade our "props" we needed in order to make it through the meal.

Fast forward to the present....today we have at least four staples we chose from in our rotation for restaurant choices...not including any fast food chains.  We do treat the kids to a meal out on the weekends often, so after a while our restaurant choices being to get old.

Yesterday I tried a new deli and as you read she loved it.  And I timed it perfectly too so it was not  crowded!  Today we took another chance and tried a new restaurant with the kids.  It was a new one for them, but not for us.  It actually is one of my husband's favorite bbq places so he was excited to introduce it to the kids.

They loved it!!!  Yippee...another restaurant to add to our rotation!

I am so proud of my daughter and how she has adjusted to trying new places.  She trusts us to help her overcome any fears of the unknown.  She trusts so so much, we do not need any reinforcements anymore!  How incredible is that!?!?!?!  She walks in and sits down just like the rest of us!  We took baby steps to get here, but every step was worth the climb!


Here is a quote for today....

Ever accomplishment begins with the decision to try- Author Unknown




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