Adventures Around the Dinner Table

A hot meal. That is all I want, at least once a day, is a hot meal. The ability to be able to savor a hot taste of each item on my plate eludes me. This is a sacrifice, along with my rights to privacy, that is just a part of motherhood, at least in my world.

Scooby says "I'm pull." (full) after barely touching his food. His sister has talked non-stop since she sat down, yet her plate is empty. Tonight's tasty treasure? Taco Mac. A household favorite. And she still cleaned her plate (twice) despite that I had no taco seasoning this time...

Scooby lays his head down on the table. I pick up his fork and slide some food on it. Fork lifts, meets his closed lips. "Come on, Scooby. You eat better than this. Open up." Like a baby bird expecting the worm, his little lips pop open, the fork slide in and comes out clean. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Meanwhile, Jellybean has moved on to a new subject (though I forget what. The topics seemed to change as fast as she was breathing). Her second helping has been inhaled,. I'm assuming in one gulp, since I never heard her voice stop going in the background. Scooby turns his face away from me, so I slide his plate away, and put his fork down.

"You are 3 years old. You can feed yourself. Mommy's not doing this anymore."
Chatter chatter chatter.
"No, I eat! I eat! You do it, pwease?!?"
Chatter chatter chatter.
*Sigh*

Then it dawned on me.

Scooby wants me to feed him, because it directs my attention onto him, rather than his sister. Despite the fact that before summer started, he had me to himself for 6 hours a day. Smart kid, that one.

Of course, Jellybean doesn't care. She just keeps chattering away, even after I mumble to myself, though clearly loud enough for both of them to hear.
"Someday, I too will get to eat my food when its still hot. I just need you to be quiet, and you to feed yourself. See? It's really simple."

Silence.

Fingers curl around my fork, fork slides across the plate, captures a morsel. Morsel meets lips.

Chatter chatter chatter.
"You do it!"

*Sigh*

I lip read. It's a little difficult to eat while lip reading. And painful. Have you stabbed your lip with a fork lately? ;)

By the way, I haven't been hiding, I've just been working writing. Wanna see?
My Write Side

You Know You're A Mom When True Stories

Hi. Did you miss me?

Sometimes life happens in unexpected ways. For example:

You know you're a mom when....
--you are too busy to realize you have to pee... until you sneeze.
--you go digging in your bag for a pen only to pull your hand out covered in crumbs.
--you can read Where the Wild Things Are before you even open it.
--strangers nod knowingly as you try to keep your toddler from stripping his undies and shorts off right there in the cart because he has to pee.
--you break out in cheers of "Let's Go Pee Pee (clap, clap, clap clap clap)" in public restrooms to help your toddler pee in the toilet.
--your idea of a newly tiled floor is walking over the Hot Wheels that have taken up permanent residency in your kitchen
--you find yourself picking up the phone to call the nearest insane asylum and check yourself in.

And finally...
You know your a mom when you can't wait to get on the computer and blog/tweet about the latest and cutest thing your speech delayed child is saying.

On that note, it tickles me pink to watch my 2 play hide and seek. Jellybean seems to always do the hiding, and Scooby is always the one doing the counting, but he doesn't seem to mind. The sounds of "Two, Six, Three, Nine, TEN!" "Rea-y o nah, I come!" never fail to put a smile on my face. The only thing that beats that is the sound of my son's laughter when I count for him and end it with "Ready or Not Here I Come!!!". He'll come rushing out from wherever he was put to count, full on laughing and giving his location away.

It's good to be back. I've missed you.