Meal time Exceptions

At dinner tonight we had a cranky, tired Mia, a cranky, overtired and hungry Toby and one set of cranky, overtired parents.

It was not a great combination.

I’m not sure who started it or how it happened; it had the potential to turn a temper-tantrum filled family meal into sheer pandemonium but in fact, had the opposite effect. Amidst a tray of perogies, mushed up baby food, avocado and banana slices, watered down apple juice and mouthfuls of spit out spinach salad, someone put their utensils down, threw their hands up in disgust and said, “AHHHH!”

Toby stopped spitting out spinach.

My baby stopped crying and throwing food on the floor.

Rob stopped asking questions about our trip to Florida and I stopped sighing in exasperation.

Even the dog poked his lazy head up for a second to see what would happen next.

We all waited with baited breath to hear the sequeale. Was one of the parents going to yell? Would Mia burst into tears? Would Toby resume his spinach spitting?

To our surprise, it was Mia who responded first with a little giggle followed by an “AHHH!” of her own. Now THAT was a sound she knew how to make.

Still shocked by the interruption, I didn’t quite have my mommy hat on straight and immediately “AHHHH-ed” right back at her at the top of my lungs.

This earned a full on belly laugh from my baby-food covered little girl. As her chubbly little cheeks rolled with laughter an equally piercing shriek responded to my own.

It was a verbal food fight. Soon Toby joined us followed closely by daddy.

Our rapidly disintegrating attempt at a cohesive family meal had been miraculously rescued by a spontaneous game of screaming at one another. Not the most CONVENTIONAL of meal times, but it had us all laughing hysterically within a few minutes.

And then, just as quickly as it began, Mia remembered that she was overtired and hates eating, Toby remembered that he has never tried perogies before and certainly never wants to, and Rob and I resumed our roles of meal time parent-police after exchanging a puzzled but bemused look that said it all; "And now back to our regularly scheduled program."