My Valentine's Moment

February 14, 2012 was spent with my hubby as we dropped our son off with his grandparents at the Embassy Suites in downtown St. Paul.  My dad was in town for some training so his work put him up at a hotel.  Don and I celebrated our love day at new Sushi place in North Oaks. 

Suishin has a great atmosphere, the food was good (not as good as what we are used to in LA for sushi - nothing with ever beat Kat-Su-Ya).  We were welcomed by very friendly hosts and since it was Valentine's Day, I recieved a beautiful single red rose, which I appreciated... and we were seated at a table near the back of the restaurant.  It was surprising to me how they really transformed a strip mall restaurant into a beautiful, relaxing environment.

However, it was too relaxing as their service was super slow.  We waited 15 minutes just to have someone take our drink order and then waited 30 minutes just to get our miso soup.  And I was hungry that night so I did run out of patience.  I attribute the slow service to the specific waitress and not the restaurant as a whole as those around us seemed to be taken care of in a more timely fashion.

The food was good, we ordered the miso soup and four rolls.  The miso was delicious in that it was the perfect level of salty.  I find they can sometimes be bland, this had nice flavor.

The rolls we ordered were the California roll, Spicy Tuna, Aspen and Lobster.  The best in the bunch was the Aspen Roll (Shrimp, crab, sprouts, avocado, spicy sauce) while the Lobster Roll was all right, I expected something a bit more flavorful than it was...

For dessert, we went next door to the Taste of Scandinavia where Don indulged in a half dozen peanut blossom cookies and I had a Ginger Heart cookie, which was exactly what I needed to top of my Valentines Dinner... see My First Pinterest Entry

The special moment of the evening was actually when we dropped Brendan off at the hotel and he handed out a Valentines to each of his cousins, his auntie Steeny and Uncle Nick and of course Grammy and Poppy... For me it was the true bond of love shared between my son and my sister... When Brendan handed her the little box of candies, there was a beautiful and genuine exchange of love for one another... So glad he has his Auntie Steeny to love him as much as she does!

Happy Valentines Day!  Love you Maloney... and lil Maloney!

My Dairy Queen Moment

February 2012 got started with an awesome day with Brendan that ended with a trip to Diary Queen! Yes, you heard me right... It is February in Minnesota and there is a Diary Queen open... Clearly, they are wise to people's hesitation to eating ice cream during the winter so they hosted a half off everything all day special... That's what drew me in!

The stop at Dairy Queen was not a part of the original plan but our trip to the grocery store ran long and I didn't have a dinner planned for Brendan and I -- Daddy was at work. So when I saw the big sign declaring 1/2 off everything and the giant yellow blowing wind sock...  I turned to Brendan and said "Do you want to share some ice cream with mommy?" And the smile on his face went from ear to ear and he said "Share ice cream with mommy!"

So here are the mini moments during our DQ visit....

1) When we got the ice cream (a Heath Bar Blizzard)  I placed it in front of him and he grabbed the spoon with vigor and started chowing down... The mini moment came when he finally came up for air and realized that he was supposed to be sharing... He turned to me and with a heaping spoonful coming at my mouth with great speed, he said "sharing ice cream with Mommy!"

2) It always brings a mommy such joy when others get to feel that joy. In celebration of their half off day, the DQ had balloons tied up in the booths and anyone who knows my son, knows he loves himself a balloon. This is hard to explain as it is one of those, you had to be there moments... So let's just say that his enthusiasm for the balloons was expressed with great big glee filled giggles and with big squeezes to the balloons... NO, they didn't pop. But a family next to us was laughing hysterically and expressed to me how fun it was to watch his pure enjoyment and their "edge of their seat" fear that he was going to pop them.

3) The last mini moment of the DQ visit speaks to a bit of Brendan's developing personality... Not sure of the right word to describe this attribute but he loves to know how things work... As we were leaving, he walked out towards the giant yellow wind sock... He pointed to the top and said "mommy, windy... Oh, no.. Blowing away."   Seeing he was worried, I explained it was attached to the base...at which point his eyes followed the sock from the top to the bottom with wonder... I watched as the wheels turned in his head as he discovered that a fan was blowing wind into the sock and his eyes even continued on to see it plugged into the power cord.. "mommy, it's plugged in" "fan blowing... (little giggle) ... Wiggle mommy". The mini moment in that for me was watching him figure it out with bright eyes of wonder.

It's always good to have a mini moment paired with a great ice cream treat... thanks Dairy Queen!