Elliott’s first trip to IHOP

Each Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, I pick up our son, Elliott, at my wife's office to spend the afternoon with him. When he started riding upright in his stroller (about five months) my one rule for these two afternoons was that I never wanted to sit at home. We're home all of the time as it is, so these two afternoons I always make sure we are out and doing something together. Whether it's walking around the mall, playing in the children's area at Barnes & Noble or playing in the park, I wanted to make sure he was always staying active, seeing new things and have as much interaction with others as he could.

This past Thursday, I wanted to take Elliott to the new Rocket Park on Orchard Avenue, but because it was raining, that was a no go. Instead, I decided to take my son to IHOP for some chocolate milk, pancakes and scrambled eggs — Elliott has a thing for eggs and what child doesn't lose his or her mind over chocolate milk. So we sat down, I got Elliott situated, ordered him some panckaes, eggs and chocolate milk. I put the children's menu in front of him and, for some reason, Elliott just lost his mind in excitement as you can see in the series of photos below:

Elliott get's his menu and crayons.

Elliott ditches the crayons.

Elliott goes into freak-out mode.

More freakin' out.

Waving the menu back and forth like a rag doll.

Yep. This was a good afternoon with cheap entertainment for Elliott and daddy.