Dinner Table Talk
Gideon is like most two year olds in that he has some interesting food quirks. He chooses to eat things randomly. Decides he doesn’t like something on a whim. Changes his mind about that thing the very next minute and usually protests that all of his food is too hot. None of this really applies to vegetables. Vegetables he will eat, preferrably raw, any time. And fruit. All fruit. I think we’ve covered that before.
I have refused to battle him about food. I will not launch any kind of orchestrated assault to get him to eat something. I know he’ll win. I also know he’s eating plenty of things that are all sorts of colors even if the most beloved of those things comes in an orange Sunkist bag. [He gets a bag of fruit snacks a day. The food coloring is fun for everyone.]
Tonight I put his food on his plate before we sat down and wondered if he’d eat more than the corn and peas but, as always, I didn’t say anything about it. We prayed and started eating and he immediately began proclaiming his love for corn. It’s GOOD! It’s NOT TOO HOT! It TASTES GOOD! Then, in a move I had not witnessed before, he announced that peas are icky. He would not be eating the peas. Okay. Fine. No problem.
After a few helpings of corn, I suggested he give the chicken a shot, after all, I say, “You love chicken.” He suggests that he does not love chicken that chicken is much like peas in its icky-ness. Little did he know I held the trump card. “What about chicken nuggets?” I ask. He thinks and then reminds me that we get those from MacDons. I agree with him but inform him that those pieces of pressed chicken parts are just differently cut pieces of chicken (Shut Up Morgan Spurlock). He thinks.
And then he tries a bite and blesses the chicken as GOOD! not at all like the peas. This chicken is TASTY! even and he inhales the rest of what is on his plate, an additional helping and part of a third. While consuming the last of it, he tells us, “Mmm. Tastes good. Tastes like raccoon.”
I’ll have to add that to the list of things he enjoys. Trash eating freaky night animals. Tastes GOOD!
Read MoreRight NOW
That new water heater I’ve been dreaming of is being installed right this minute while people scream on my radio about being debt free. It’s feeling very good to not have to shell out the big bucks for this giant piece of metal that I will love every day I enjoy hot water from my tap and shower.
I did call Jud and my dad to tell them to get in touch with me if they hadn’t heard from me in an hour or so. It’s always nerve racking for me to let strange dirty men into my house even if it is to help me out (will they kill us? will they come back later to attack us? how will i save the children if they try to hurt us? plan! if you don’t plan, you’ll fail and in this instance failure means death. PLAN!!!). I realize it’s over the top. I realize it’s on the other side of sanity. I still do it. Isn’t sharing that with you the first step to healing or something?
Ahem. So here we are making it to the weekend with four healthy people, one new water heater and fajitas on the menu. Doesn’t get any better.
Read MoreShaking it Off
Oh hello, Thursday. We weren’t sure we’d see you this week since we were so busy evacuating our innards for all those days and forgetting entirely that the water heater was supposed to be replaced on Monday because we were being held hostage at Mom-mom and Poppy’s place. And then we woke up yesterday and started to live again. It’s so nice to be alive, isn’t it? We really like it too and hope to stay on this side of healthy for at least the rest of this week (yes, I’m aiming low).
For real, though. This has been a rear-end kicking winter of ill. I will not miss the bone chilling cold and I will not miss the gut wrecking boughts of sickness.
I will miss these things:
– Piper is taking her first steps. I wouldn’t know what that looks like though since she took them for Poppy and for Daddy but to date refuses to show her Mama some love.
– Gideon is Mr. Inventive during playtime. His little men talk to each other in different degrees of excitement and anxiousness. His voice leaps around as he acts out tragedies and comedies and mostly action adventure drama. It’s fantastic.
– Jud brought me a really wonderful bouquet last week. It’s sitting on top of the little toy cube holder, right underneath the picture Allison painted of Jud & me and every time I look in that direction, which is constantly since those toys are the center of our universe, I get all warm and happy.
Forays Into Comedy
A few days ago Gideon bounced over to where Piper and I were playing by the front window. She loves to play there since she can pull herself up on the window sill and check out all the happenings outside. Peek-a-boo usually results after she hides in the curtains and the Christmas tree proximity was a bonus. Anytime Gideon gets near her, her excitement bubbles over into loosing her balance and near full body convulsions. She’s a typical little sister, I’d say. So when Gideon came over, she was jumping out of her skin again, but I was the one who was about to get really excited.
He gets up in my face and says “knock, knock.”
And I respond with “who’s there?”
“Poppy Mom-mom”
“Poppy Mom-mom who?”
“Poppy Mom-mom bring more fruit snacks!”
It’s not exactly comedy gold, but I laughed pretty hard anyway. Welcome to my world, Gideon. Making people laugh is right up there with eating those fruit snacks.
Read MoreAll This White Stuff
I would be remiss to not mention the winter wonderland we are currently surrounded by, the likes of which I have never seen in this city. This morning it is fa-fa-fa-chilly out with blowing snow and more on the way. This is the part where I would probably say something about Algore or the climate change war but I think we’ve all batted that around far too many times. 
Instead I’m just going to lament that between all the infected ears, runny noses and high fevers I haven’t really thought much about leaving the house, save the times when we bundle everyone up and drive to the doctor or my parents’ place.
While taking down the tree this morning (yeah, the Christmas tree. Stop judging me) I remembered how I was going to go shop all those after Christmas sales to buy some new ornaments for next year. Ah, there’s always 2011. Perhaps the next winter will not be so brutal, will not enslave me to the sofa and blanket, will not afford me the luxury of blaming laziness on wind chills and then I will venture out to the open air mall where I will purchase fabulously discounted, festive tchotchkes and world peace will fall from the sky like tiny butterfly wings floating like flotsam. Or, you know, maybe not.
In the meantime, I’ll enjoy the view from our front window.
