Anniversary Dinner

It is our anniversary today - 8 years now that we are a family.

With the anniversary falling on a Monday, we went out for a special dinner yesterday to celebrate. The three of us went to Katsu, a sushi restaurant that has a reputation for serving authentic, Tokyo-style sushi (at Tokyo prices).

I had told Kai ahead of time that we would not permit him to use the iPad or our phones at this restaurant. He had been using electronics at every restaurant all throughout our vacation, but I wanted one special meal without him playing games.

He was actually surprisingly okay with it. In fact, during the meal he engaged in much conversation, and not all of it was about Pokemon or his monster apps. He spoke quite a bit about school, even more than he does when we try to query him about on school days.

We started out with three appetizers, primarily to make sure we had some things that we knew Kai would eat. He loves edamame, for instance. And we also ordered this dish of fried oysters.

And a plate of tempura to share. I figured that Kai would want to eat only the shrimp, leaving the rest of the items for my wife and I to split. So I was a bit surprised when he wanted to try each item. My wife and I had to tell him that he wouldn't like a couple of the items just so we would have something to eat.

Of course, the main meal was sushi. For Kai, we ordered several pieces of his favorites including shrimp, squid, and octopus. But my wife and I chose the omakase, or chef's choice, where we left it up to the chef to choose for us. Here's my plate:

As you can see, the sushi was quite exquisite, looking like works of art, almost too good to eat. But eat it we did, and it tasted as good as it looked.

It was a rare occasion for my wife and I to go to an upper-scale restaurant, and the fact that we could go with Kai was special. All was going really well.

Well, until about the time that Kai's second order of nigiri sushi arrived at the table.

He started to complain of a stomach ache. I accompanied him to the men's room. Once there, he wailed in pain but he wasn't throwing up or having diarrhea. I thought it was probably just gas pain. He screamed at me to call a doctor, then got mad when I didn't. It's hard to tell with him when he is seriously ill and when he is just upset.

We were in the bathroom for about 10-15 minutes when I thought maybe we should just go home. He agreed to that but then got more angry when I asked him to wash his hands, then again when I took the time to wash mine.

I was worried that he would continue yelling out in the restaurant, so I told him that he would not be able to use the iPad at home if he was loud in the restaurant. He seemed to calm down when he was back at the table with Mom, and we stayed and ate a little while longer. Kai's anger shifted from me to talking about how the staff at school are all bossy.

Ultimately whatever discomfort he was feeling passed, and we made it out of the restaurant and back home with no incident.

So the evening was a mixed success. That we were able to go to this place at all and enjoy most of the meal was wonderful. That we still had to endure some anxious moments was not surprising.

So I guess in a way that evening was somewhat metaphoric of the 8 years we have been together.

It's hard to believe how far we've come in 8 years. And hard to believe that in another 8 years Kai will have finished high school. It won't always be easy, but I'm sure there will be many beautiful moments to keep us going.