R-E-L-A-X

"Mommy, Daddy, what does that sign say?"

"What sign honey?"

"R ... E.... L..."

Ian and I look around the room. We are at one of our favourite haunts. In a pub, or rather the little house/restaurant NEXT to what was our favourite pub that burned down over a year ago. They are still working on rebuilding it, but because it is a heritage building it is a long, slow process. So in the meantime, they've set up shop in the little converted house that sits next door, which was happily already owned by the same people.

This pub has actually become our favourite family hangout...we started coming here regularly after we had the Boy. It is the "downtown" in a wonderful family friendly neighbourhood, on a beautiful main street where you see families, tourists, people on their lunch break, new moms and babies after strollercize with Starbucks in hand, a great cheap shoe store, an amazing selection of Harley's parked at the end of the street while their riders enjoy their pints on a sunny day ....and if it weren't so far from the Man's job, we might have even looked to settle here.

The pub has a great kids' menu, and our kids are so comfortable there now that they order their own lunch. Yes, even the girlie... "Cheese sandwich with fries and white milk PLEEEEEEZE". And Mommy and Daddy can sit back and enjoy their tall glasses of Bud Light (yeah, for me, I'm a lightweight most times), or sometimes if I'm wanting a bit more, slurp back a Smithwick's or Guiness with the Man.

Our Saturday morning "thing" now is to go for our workout at the gym (the kids aren't too bad about staying in childminding) ... and then negate all those burned calories by visiting said pub. Oh well, the world isn't perfect.

But on this particular occasion, it was just the girlie with us. Her brother was still in school, and her Daddy had a craving for a nice lunch. While we were waiting for our meals, she was keeping busy by spelling out the signs on the wall.

"Well, sweetie, that word is RELAX.", the Man replied patiently.

"What does relax mean, Daddy?" (don't you just love the machine gun quickness with which the queries are fired back?)

Hmm, good question to ask a father of an 8 year old boy never stops moving and an almost 4 year old girlie who asks the same 5 questions about 100 times a day. What is the definition of RELAX?

"Well, you know how Daddy likes to lie on the couch and read the paper on the weekend, when I ask you guys to let me have some quiet time? That's when Daddy's trying to relax." Gee, that picture is quite familiar.

"Oh. So how come they have that sign here, Daddy? There's NO COUCH and nowhere to lie down? How can you relax?"

Good point. I guess we'll have to speak to the management about that.