Just One Bite!

At dinner tonight our children's roles seemed to be reversed. Taz sat down and ate all his food pretty quick with out complaining. WG did alright but had to be reminded several times. Princess on the other hand seemed to have been channeling Taz's apparently vanquished spirit that brings misbehavior and rejection of food at dinner time. This isn't an area Princess usually struggles with. She started by spilling her juiced all over the table because she had set it directly on top of her fork she had shoved under her place mat. I felt like pulling on her ear for a peak, Taz? Are you in there? Then she ate all of her vegetables with out a word and asked for more, once again very Taz like. I told her she of course had to finish everything else on her plate before she got more of anything. This brought about an unexpected tantrum which ended with her in her bed to calm down and deciding to be nice. After a few minutes the crying stopped and I heard her little voice at the top of the stairs. "I'm nice now Mama." So she came down and sort of ate her potatoes with a little encouragement. Then we started on the meat, which happened to be a family favorite, pork tenderloin in a delicious recipe we acquired from Billy's sister a few years ago.

And this is when the real fun began. She refused the bite so I threatened her with a return trip to bed. She finally took it and promptly spit it onto the floor. To which I insisted she put back in her mouth. Tasty I know but it was one of those lessons I wasn't going to let slide. So back in her mouth the little bite of meat from the floor went. Then the chewing started. She chewed and chewed, and shoved it in her cheek and then her front lip and then started pushing it back out of her mouth to which I responded by insisting she take a drink. Which seemed to remind her how to swallow and this first bite was finally gone.

Then the second bite. The same ritual of chewing and shoving to odd pockets in her mouth ensued which inevitably results in amnesia of those swallowing muscles. Unfortunately this time the drink trick didn't seem to help. When I would offer her a drink she would press the cup to her lips and the water would trickle down her front to which she would start complaining profusely that I spilled water on her! I did not it was your own fault for not opening your mouth! At one point she was sitting there in front of me and I was desperately clinging to any fragment of sanity to stop from totally freaking out on my two year old who was refusing to swallow this very little bite of meat. When I peaked at her from under my VERY furrowed brow in hopes of catching some hint the lump of mutilated pork in her mouth was diminishing I saw her looking intently at me with a scowl which was obviously her version of my face. It was very funny. So I responded by poking the little bulge in her cheek in hopes of enticing some of it down her throat. She shoved it back in her front lip and grinned at me. SICK!

At this point I decided this was definitely the last bite cause I couldn't hardly make it through this one. Come on just finish, then I can put you to bed and do some deep breathing exercises to regain my self control. I was back to fuming as she pretended to take another drink of water. Why, seriously! Why do kids forget how to swallow when all you want them to do is finish this one last bite and go to bed before you totally freak out! I leaned on the table with my head in my hands, so she did them same. Then she decided it must be a game of peek-a-boo and uncovered her eyes saying, "a-boo". I was so frustrated I felt giddy and her little game made me crack a smile of extreme frustration. So I sent her to bed. I'll probably find that little chunk of mutilated meat stuffed in her room some where in the morning but right now I don't care. Just get to bed before the giddy wheres off and I go postal on you!

We haven't had a dinner like that in quite some time, I hope it isn't a new trend. Please, Please don't let it be a trend! I know this was kind of a boring post, but it was the only way to calm down enough to answer Billy's query with a positive, "Yes I do WANT to read scriptures and not just sit here on the couch fuming for hours." I hope you had a good Sabbath. We did, unless you include dinner :)!