A Fancy Dinner

I made a deal with The Little Lady the other day (what? I'm not above bribery) that, if she behaved, we could have a Fancy Dinner together. I even promised to dress fancy (which she stipulated meant NO shorts or t-shirts). She held up her end of the deal, so I made it happen. The next day I picked her up from camp in a grey jersey-cotton dress and beaded headband and her whole face lit up as she got in the car. "You did dress fancy." Boom town. This kid is easy to please. Thus began the discussion about where we would go for dinner:

TLL: I don't know any fancy places to eat in Athens.
Me: We can go anywhere. Where is your favorite place to eat?
TLL: DePalma's...but it's not very fancy.
Me: Well, kiddo, at around $12 a plate, it's as fancy as we're going to get tonight. This is Athens not Buckhead.

Okay, I didn't say it quite like that, but man, "Not very fancy?"  I think I may have created a monster. Maybe her high standards will work for good as a dating deterrent. Anyway, we got home and she immediately went to her room to get ready only to be disappointed when I told her that she had at least 3 hours until dinner which would be plenty of time to read, practice piano, and wash the camp smell off.

So we got everything done and got ready to go out. Two fancy ladies headed out to a fancy dinner. I forgot to mention the other part of this deal: Fancy dinner = Fancy manners. That lasted until the bread and olive oil came out:

Me: (watching her push oil around the plate with her finger) What was our deal about Fancy manners?
TLL: Well...I was drawing a crown.
Me: uncontrollable laughter

It's really hard to discipline when you're laughing uncontrollably. The Little Lady knows this and uses it to her advantage more than I would like. Then she ordered pizza and informed me that Fancy manners did not apply to pizza as it is perfectly acceptable to eat pizza with one's hands. What could I do? It's true.

Fanciest regards,
The Lady