Paella of sorts

On this Friday night, I had quite the dilemma. The entire day had been a huge day for Isabela. Daniela, Raveena and the boys took Isabela with them to the zoo for their Halloween festivities while I worked until 3 pm and Sam had a morning to himself. She absolutely loved it! After that, her Papi had a picnic basket filled with many of her favorite treats for a picnic at the park. Once I got home, we left to the River Oaks shopping center to take advantage of a few sales I knew about. Yes, that has nothing to do with Isabela, but there is a Gap Kids we finalized our shopping spree with.













Lastly, the dilemma. Well, we all wanted somewhere delicious to eat. Somewhere that warrants a high calorie count and $$+ price point. You see, where we live, we have fine culinary options anywhere from .5 - 5 miles. We could eat in a different restaurant every day for months without a repeat. But, on a Friday night, with a 6year old, kind of limited. However, the problem was that Isabela would go crazy over eating any fine cuisine, meaning my fear was that we would get looks from adults who would rather not be near children on a Friday night. Maybe if we went to a Tex-Mex place it would be totally ok, but we almost never like most of those dishes. I was so concerned with other people's comfort level. Thankfully, that only lasted an hour or so. I slapped myself around and respected Isabela for the person she is, and we went to a new Spanish restaurant in River Oaks. Oh, was I glad we did. Albeit she was the only child in the restaurant, sitting on the patio next to the waterfall pond, among all the adults eating tapas and sipping on Rioja while listening to the strings of the guitar-playing man, who, literally, clapped when her food arrived. What a sight to surprise her with a paella of shrimp, octopus, oysters and mussels. Even better? When she did her one-finger dip into my glass of wine before her bite of the olive oil dipped piece of bread, she closed her eyes in awe and gave me one thumb up for approval. Yup, among all the adults surrounding us, I had a little girl who passed up the movies, passed up the park and passed up anything that didn't contain a kitchen. By that time, I was so over being worried about everyone else's space. Actually, she became quite the chum with the wait staff, so impressed with her culinary interests and her appreciation for various ingredients. I was so stupid for being so concerned earlier. To make matters better, we went out for ice cream. Her choices? Pumpkin and coconut scoops with a handful of multi-colored gummy bears, that she actually thought were her daily vitamins. I was so pleased. I got to share with her!













I am so glad Isabela loves doing our things as much as we enjoy doing her things. This is the beginning of a beautiful relationship.





We decided that every week, we will find a new restaurant to try in town to introduce Isabela to the vast ingredients of this world. I am no great cook, zero desire to be one, that's Sam's talent. But, what I do have is a great appreciation for other people's food art. Looks like Isabela is a combination of both of us! Speaking of, I have purchased kids' cooking classes for her and her best friend, Paige. What a treat that will be for her!

-- Posted from my iPhone