Sydney Discovered Chuck E. Cheese

We had a whole day off and nothing planned. Hmmmm...what to do? what to do? Tracie and I decided to take the little tyke to Chuck E. Cheese's since none of us had ever been there. I had heard that it was a fun place for kids while parents could enjoy pretty decent pizzas.

We quickly discovered that it was not really designed for a 15-month old baby. The place was filled with video games and skee ball machines. We were a little disappointed that there was not a cage filled with plastic balls for little ones to jump around in. But Sydney had a blast. She wandered everywhere and got on everything. She especially enjoyed the game where the player can hit one of three buttons to shoot little marbles into a frog's mouth when it opened. I held her in my arms and helped her stomp on the buttons to shoot. Each stomp brought a little giggle.

Then we spotted a photo sketch booth. Tracie decided to get some sketches made with Sydney. One token and a digital photo later, the screen started to render a chalk-like rendition of Sydney and Tracie while a voice narrated what was happening. After a minute or so, the printer spat out a cute sketch of Tracie and Sydney bordered by the Chuck E. Cheese logo. How cute!!

Of course, Sydney was squirming in Tracie's arms while I jumped up and down next to the booth trying to get her to smile. Tracie ended up being almost out of the shot. So, Tracie decided to do it again. Tracie smiled; Sydney squirmed, and I was a dancing fool. The shutter clicked. Chalk flew. Second picture rendered.

Sydney looked down. Grrrrrrr. By this time, I was tired from trying everything to get her to smile and look at the camera. People were starting to stare at the Asian moron in the entire restaurant filled with prim and proper Causasian mothers with their children waiting for a birthday party to start. But Tracie wasn't quite done yet. She was determined to try once more for that "perfect" shot. Lord help me!!

We tried again. This time, I snarled and snorted and waved my hands way up high in the air to make sure Sydney didn't look down. The camera snapped away as Tracie smiled sweetly at it. The third sketch came out. Sydney looked up, completely mesmerized by my hands. But her hair was a mess from all the squirming before that.

I was just about to cry when Tracie decided to have mercy on my soul. She decided that she also had enough of trying to get a good shot so skee ball was next on the agenda. THANK GOD!!!

We accumulated a few tickets from playing skee balls, which really amounted to nothing worthwhile to redeem. Sydney, meanwhile, frolicked among the games for a few more minutes. She even met Chuck E. Cheese himself. She cried immediately when he held his hand out to touch her but she would follow him around the restaurant just a few feet behind. We decided to head home around 12:30. There will be a next time, Tracie promised. Chuck E. Cheese was definitely on the to-do list for Sydney when we had nowhere better to take her.